"Health Organization" experts visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology

The European Union is showing interest in the Chinese and Russian vaccines

  • During the arrival of WHO experts to the Institute of Virology in Wuhan.

    A.F.B.

  • Angela Merkel: "Every vaccine is welcome in the European Union, and I spoke with Putin to provide Russian vaccine data and obtain a permit."

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Yesterday morning, World Health Organization experts visited the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, as part of an investigation they are conducting on the origin of the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), while the European Union is studying the possibility of adopting the Chinese and Russian vaccines, showing interest in them.

The Institute of Virology in Wuhan includes several laboratories surrounded by tight security measures, in which researchers conduct tests on viruses of the "Corona" strain.

And former US President Donald Trump accused this institute of being the source of the emerging corona virus.

While Beijing categorically denied that the institute was behind the spread of the virus.

The experts stayed for about four hours in the institute and left without making any statement, AFP correspondents said.

In the global race to vaccination, the use of Chinese vaccines may expand to include the European Union, which has expressed its interest, but with conditions, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “If the Russian and Chinese producers announce all the data, they may obtain conditional permission to market the vaccines.”

A study published in the medical journal "The Lancet", the day before yesterday, showed that the Russian vaccine is 91.6% effective in the asymptomatic forms of the disease. Besides Russia, 17 countries have licensed the "Sputnik V" vaccine, including former Soviet republics such as Belarus and Armenia. Ursula von der Leyen, who is under criticism, for defending the European vaccination strategy to the main political blocs in the European Parliament during a series of closed sessions.

For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she does not, in principle, object to the use of the Russian Corona vaccine in Germany, and said in an interview with the German TV Channel 1, "ARD": “Every vaccine is welcome in the European Union, but it will not be authorized unless Provide the European Medicines Agency the necessary data ».

And she added, "We warmly welcome all those who seek to obtain a permit by submitting statements. I have spoken with the Russian president about this matter in an accurate manner."

The German Minister of Health, Jens Young, stated that talks are currently being held on the production of the Russian vaccine, "Sputnik V", in Europe.

He said that during the talks with the Russian side, there was a request to consider whether there is capacity in Germany or Europe to produce the vaccine.

Young men expressed his happiness at the emergence of any vaccine that proves its effectiveness and safety, and said: "The authorities concerned with issuing vaccination permits must now examine to what extent this applies to the (Sputnik V) vaccine."

In addition, the German vaccine development company, "Curvac", intends to cooperate with the British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, in developing vaccines that prevent infection with variants of the Coronavirus.

"This new cooperation is based on our already existing relations with Curvac, and this cooperation symbolizes the fact that we are combining our scientific experience in order to accelerate the development of new vaccines against the (Covid-19) variants," GlaxoSmithKline President Emma Walmsley said yesterday. ) ».

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that nationalism in the distribution of vaccines to prevent (Covid-19) harms everyone, and that weak cooperation between countries is a major barrier to achieving the necessary spread of vaccination worldwide to end the pandemic.

He added in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine: "Despite the increasing number of vaccine options, current manufacturing capacity does not meet little of what is needed in the world."

He continued: "Not allowing the majority of the world's population to be vaccinated will not only lead to the continuation of disease and unnecessary deaths, but also to the emergence of new viral mutations as the spread of (Covid-19) among the unprotected population continues."

• The World Health Organization warns of the emergence of viral mutations in the population not protected by vaccines.

• «Curvac» intends to develop vaccines against the variants of «Corona» in cooperation with «GlaxoSmithKline».

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