It is not certain that scientists will be able to create an effective vaccine against the coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, but it could take a year before one were to be invented, the head of the World Health Organization said. Speaking by video-conference to deputies from the European Parliament's health committee, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that if such a vaccine became a reality, it should become a public good available to all. 'It would be very difficult to say for sure that we will have a vaccine,' Tedros said. 'We never had a vaccine for a coronavirus. So this will be, when discovered, hoping that it will be discovered, it will be the first one,' he said. He said the WHO had already more than a 100 candidates for a vaccine of which one was at an advanced stage of development. 'Hoping that there will be a vaccine, the estimate is we may have a vaccine within one year. If accelerated, it could be even less than that, but by a couple of months. That's what scientists are saying,' he said.
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