UK's Whitty: Incredibly small chance of effective coronavirus vaccine in next year

"The long-run exit from the COVID-19 challenge will be a highly effective vaccine and/or highly effective drugs," England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Wednesday. "The chance of having these in the next calendar year is incredibly small."

Additional takeaways

"Until then we will need to rely on disruptive social distancing measures."

"Very hopeful that we will have a vaccine proof of concept in much less than a year."

"Not expecting big variation in the timing of regional peaks in COVID-19 deaths within the UK."

Market reaction

These comments didn't have a significant impact on the GBP's performance and the GBP/USD pair was last seen clinging to small daily gains at 1.2315.