Pune:
WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Monday called for the expansion and strengthening of COVID-19 vaccination programs worldwide because of rising cases of the Omicron variant.
Speaking at one of the plenary sessions at PANEX-21, held at the Armed Forces Medical College in Maharashtra, Dr Swaminathan said that vaccination coverage needed to be expanded to ensure that those who Vulnerability is protected after two doses and that reduces the likelihood of death and hospitalization.
She also said that discussions were taking place at a global level about having a “pandemic pact”.
“With Delta, to some extent, we see a reduction in the neutralizing activity with conventional vaccines. But with Omicron we see a further reduction. That means Omicron can dodge the reactions. our immune system and infect us but vaccination still hopes to protect from getting very sick,” she said.
“We want to expand and strengthen immunization programs as much as possible around the world,” said the World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist.
She said that discussions were taking place at the global level about having a “pandemic treaty” binding all countries under treaties relating to arms and ammunition, auto treaties. or the use of biological weapons, which are not allowed by the world. conventions and agreements.
Dr Swaminathan added that in the early stages of the pandemic, people at WHO started learning about treatments.
“Clinical trials are already underway and several countries, including China and Italy, where the first wave resulted in high mortality, and New York, the UK and others have also begun. data production and clinical trials took place.WHO then decided to establish a united trial platform.Within a few weeks we were able to start trials in 30 countries and India is part of that,” she added.
Dr Swaminathan added that India has become a major contributor to solidarity trials. “Now the trials involved are in phase 2,” she said. “The first phase is about drugs like Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir and others. In the second phase, we’re looking at drugs,” she said. Anti-inflammatory”.
WHO has also established a unified vaccine testing platform considering the need for appropriate testing of the many vaccines in development, the lead scientist added.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
