World Health Organization (WHO) launches plan to fast-track vaccine

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a video conference call with the president of the Research and Expertise Analysis Committee (Comite Analyse Recherche et Expertise, CARE) on ongoing efforts to accelerate the development and access to vaccine and treatment against COVID-19, at the Elysee Palace in Paris on April 16, 2020, on the 31st day of a lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Yoan VALAT / POOL / AFP) (Photo by YOAN VALAT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

by BBC

World leaders have launched a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to speed up the research, development and distribution of vaccines, drugs and tests against the coronavirus.

“Our shared commitment is to ensure all people have access to all the tools to defeat Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Speaking via video link at the launch, French President Emmanuel Macron said a vaccine should be “available to everyone around the world” when it is ready.

Other world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, echoed that sentiment, describing a vaccine against Covid-19 as a universal public good.

The US, whose President Donald Trump recently said he would withdraw American funding from the WHO, says it will not take part in the initiative.

We’ll bring you more details on what the WHO plan entails when we get it.