At least £6.4 billion worth of investment is needed to begin a world vaccination programme to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control, an expert has suggested.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the research charity Wellcome Trust, said: “Around 8 billion dollars (£6.4 billion) is needed for a vaccination that can be developed and manufactured at scale, and to distribute that around the world leaving nobody behind.”
Speaking during a telephone conference, he said the current pandemic is unlikely to be a one-off, describing it now as “an endemic human infection”.
“It is likely this is here for the human race for the future and so we are going to have to find ways to deal with that,” he said.
More to follow.
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