The search for a coronavirus vaccine requires a global response

Editorial: Now is not the time for insular leaders to try to buy up supplies on an exclusive basis

A number of nations are working on testing candidates (Reuters)

The ultimate “exit strategy” from the coronavirus pandemic would be a vaccine. Despite some modestly encouraging early signals and some hopelessly optimistic media coverage, an effective vaccine is by no means a certainty, and will in any case take many months, if not years, to develop.

Donald Trump, for once, was right to direct research by the large American pharma groups and research institutes to proceed at “warp speed”, (despite getting them distracted by brief inquiries into the therapeutic qualities of bleach and hydroxychloroquine). Some 80 sets of researchers around the world are working on developing a vaccine. Trials run by a team from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca​, and testing of another by Moderna in the US, look promising.

Key to the success of developing, manufacturing and distributing any vaccine is close international collaboration. This is why the international (remote) vaccine summit is now of greater importance. Hosted by the prime minister and arranged before the pandemic, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation​ (GAVI) summit aimed to raise £6bn from national governments, international bodies, charities, foundations and companies to fund a range of vaccines for the poorest children in the poorest countries in the world, for diseases such as meningitis, whooping cough, hepatitis and diphtheria.