WHO issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine and emphasizes need for equitable global access Published on January 2, 2021 COVID-19/Politics/Public Health 1774 views The World Health Organization (WHO) today listed the Comirnaty COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago. More