Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Monday said that the coronavirus vaccine will be the fastest vaccine to be ever developed and they will be available by the summer of 2021.
According to a report by Zee News, Gates made the statements while addressing at the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020, which is being held virtually.
"One or more of these vaccines will be available by early next year and as there will be multiples vaccines, it is necessary to make sure to understand how exactly and where to use each of them," he said.
Gates also said India is "very inspiring" as it has made huge strides in improving the health of its people in the last two decades. "And now, India's research and manufacturing will be critical to fighting COVID-19 especially when it comes to making vaccines at large scale," he said.
Gates said scientists all over the world are involved in a particular 'grand challenge' -- ending the current pandemic.
He also said researchers are breaking down silos and rather than waiting to go through the publication process, they are sharing data on a daily basis. "Since the pandemic began, scientists have shared 1,37,000 viral COVID-19 genomic sequences," the Microsoft Corp co-founder said. Even the pharmaceutical companies are cooperating on production ways that really have never been seen before, he added.
Talking about the challenges in vaccine development, he said mRNA vaccine is an area where many have seen "great promises". "Probably, the first approved vaccine for COVID-19 will be mRNA," he said but added that the vaccine cannot be counted on alone because it is very hard to scale up and has a logistical problem because it requires a proper cold chain.
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