ワクチン信頼、コロナ収束に不可欠 目標は来年中に各国人口２割に免疫　ＷＨＯ

【ジュネーブＡＦＰ＝時事】新型コロナウイルスのワクチン開発の成果を各国が発表している中、世界保健機関（WHO）の専門部門のトップがAFPのインタビューに応じ、ワクチンに対する不信感によって、新型ウイルス対策として最も効果的な治療法も無用なものになりかねないと警鐘を鳴らし、目標は、2021年末までに各国人口の20％が免疫を獲得することだと話した。（写真は資料写真）
　米製薬大手ファイザーと独ビオンテックは９日、共同開発中のコロナワクチンについて、現在実施中の臨床試験の最終段階で９０％の有効性が証明されたと発表。ＷＨＯの予防接種部門を統括するケイト・オブライエン氏は、この中間結果を「非常に意義がある」と評価した。
　一方でオブライエン氏は、誤情報や不信感によって科学の進歩が社会で受け入れられず、ワクチン接種をちゅうちょする兆候が強まっていることに深い懸念を示した。
　「ワクチンが冷凍庫や冷蔵庫、棚に置かれたままで使用されなければ、新型ウイルス感染症の沈静化にはつながらない」と同氏は指摘。
　「ワクチンの評価にはＷＨＯが関与しており、ワクチンの安全性や有効性に関して私たちは妥協するつもりはない。その事実への（人々の）信頼」を高めるため、さらに必要な措置を講じなければならないと述べた。
　同氏は、ファイザーとビオンテックが共同開発しているワクチンやその他のワクチンについて、予防効果の持続期間など、まだ明らかになっていない問題がいくつもあると認めた。臨床試験中のワクチンが実際に無症状感染やウイルスの伝染を防げるかどうかも不明のままだ。
　いくつかの問題は残っているが、ＷＨＯは、１種類以上のワクチンが間もなく承認され、直ちに量産および大規模な配布が開始されるとの見通しを示している。
　認可ワクチンに対する大量の需要を見込んで、ＷＨＯはワクチンを確実に公正に分配する国際プログラム「ＣＯＶＡＸファシリティ」の創設を支援した。
　だが、多大な努力が行われているにもかかわらず、すべての人に十分な量のワクチンを確保するにはしばらくかかるとみられており、ＷＨＯは配布の優先順位の付け方についての指針作りに着手している。
　オブライエン氏によると、「目標は、２０２１年末までに各国の人口の２０％が免疫を獲得できるようにすること」だ。
　他方で、承認されたワクチンの製造から輸送経路の確保、一部のワクチンに必要な超低温での保存に至るまで、数十億人にワクチンを配布する際の物流面の課題も山積している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/11/16-13:43）

As the world celebrates advances in vaccines against the novel coronavirus, a top WHO expert warned in an interview with AFP that public distrust risked rendering even the most effective treatments useless against the pandemic.
A vaccine that sits in a freezer or in a refrigerator or on a shelf and doesn't get used is doing nothing to help shorten this pandemic, said Kate O'Brien, director of the World Health Organization's immunisation department.
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday that their prospective vaccine had proven 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 infections in ongoing final phase trials involving more than 40,000 people.
O'Brien hailed the interim results as extremely important, and voiced hope that preliminary data from a handful of other candidate vaccines in similarly advanced trials would come through soon.
If the complete data show that one or more of these vaccines has very, very substantial efficacy, that is really good news for putting another tool in the toolbox for fighting the pandemic, she said.
But with the pandemic continuing to surge after already claiming some 1.3 million lives, she voiced deep concern at growing signs of vaccine hesitancy, with misinformation and mistrust colouring people's acceptance of scientific advances.
We are not going to be successful as a world in controlling the pandemic with the use of vaccines as one of the tools unless people are willing to get vaccinated, O'Brien said.
More needed to be done to boost public confidence in the fact that the vaccines that WHO is involved in evaluating, we will not be compromising on safety or efficacy, she said.
- 'Climbing Everest' -
O'Brien acknowledged that there were a number of outstanding questions about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate and its peers, including how long protection against the virus would last.
And while the vaccine candidates are being tested for how effectively and safely they protect people from developing the disease, it remains unclear whether they actually avert asymptomatic infection and transmission of the virus.
A big question, she said, is: does it change your likelihood of transmitting to anybody else?
Despite the remaining questions, the WHO is betting on one or more vaccines winning approval soon, followed by a rapid scale-up of production and distribution.
Anticipating the huge demand for any approved vaccine, the UN health agency has helped create the so-called Covax facility to ensure equitable distribution.
But even with gargantuan efforts, it will take a while before there are enough doses for everyone, and the WHO has set out guidelines for how to prioritise the distribution.
The goal here is that every country should be able to immunise 20 percent of their population by the end of 2021, O'Brien said.
That, she said, would go a long way to providing protection to healthcare workers and the most vulnerable populations, as well as those essential to keeping societies running, like teachers.
After that, how quickly everyone else could access a vaccine would largely depend on which country they live in, and whether their government had made deals to access vaccines that obtain approval.
We would expect many more doses in 2022, O'Brien said.
Meanwhile, the logistical challenges of getting approved vaccines out to billions who need it are daunting, from manufacturing to ensuring the transportation and storage at the extremely low temperatures some of the candidates require.
A vaccine that is highly efficacious and is safe... still is only valuable for a public health impact if it actually gets to the people that it needs to protect and is used widely in populations, O'Brien said.
Developing a safe and effective vaccine is like establishing base camp at Everest, she said.
But actually getting to the impact of vaccines is (like) having to climb Everest.