Trial pause a wake-up call but do not be discouraged, urges WHO

ZURICH • AstraZeneca's pause of trials for an experimental Covid-19 vaccine after the illness of a participant is a "wake-up call" but should not discourage researchers, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) chief scientist said.

"This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared," Dr Soumya Swaminathan told a virtual briefing from Geneva.

"We do not have to be discouraged. These things happen."

Governments are desperate for a vaccine to help end the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and global economic turmoil, and the WHO had flagged AstraZeneca's, being developed with Oxford University, as the most promising.

However, the drugmaker suspended late-stage trials this week after a participant in Britain suffered neurological symptoms.

The WHO's head of emergencies Mike Ryan said: "It's a race against this virus, and it's a race to save lives. It's not a race between companies, and it's not a race between countries."

More than 27.95 million people have been reported infected worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who on Thursday upped his fund-raising plea to US$38 billion (S$51.9 billion) for the agency's Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator programme to fight the coronavirus, declined to comment directly on reports that United States President Donald Trump had downplayed the virus' dangers while criticising the WHO's response.

"What worries me the most is what I have been saying all along: a lack of solidarity," Dr Tedros said. "When we are divided, it is a good opportunity for the virus."

REUTERS