WHO: Turkey has eight candidate vaccines for Covid-19

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The World Health Organization (WHO) on July 15 released a list of candidate vaccines for Covid-19. There are 23 vaccines in the clinical evaluation phase whereas 140 candidate vaccines are in preclinical evaluation, the list shows.

Eight of the preclinical vaccine studies are being conducted at various universities and research centers in Turkey, including Ankara University, İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Boğaziçi University and Selçuk University.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) asked the Ministry of Health to inform the public about vaccine studies in the country.

Sending a letter to Minister Fahrettin Koca, the TTB noted that the ministry has not made a public announcement on the studies and said, "We should be able to receive news about such developments in our country not from international institutions but directly from the Ministry of Health."

Since the beginning of the outbreak, the TTB has been criticizing the ministry over the lack of transparency. The ministry has only recently begun disclosing geographical information on the pandemic. (AS/VK)