The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved a vaccine from the Swedish-British company AstraZeneca for emergency use. This was stated by the head of the organization, Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus, during a press conference, which was broadcast on the official WHO YouTube account.
“WHO today approved two vaccine options from Oxford University and AstraZeneca for emergency use,” Tedros said. According to him, by doing so, the organization allowed the distribution of this drug worldwide through the COVAX mechanism, created to ensure the availability of vaccines.
One of the vaccine variants is produced by the South Korean company SKBio, and the other by the Indian Serum Institute of India. Both companies manufacture the same drug, but since they use different manufacturing sites, separate inspections and approvals were required, Tedros explained.
Earlier it became known that Spain and South Korea refused to use the AstraZeneca vaccine for elderly patients. In South Africa, the problem with the AstraZeneca vaccine turned out to be even more acute: scientists doubted that it was effective against a common strain of the virus there, and suspended vaccination for the duration of additional research.