UNESCO hails Turkish woman scientist for COVID-19 jab

ANKARA

UNESCO on Friday praised the efforts of a Turkish woman scientist in developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

"Food for thought from Dr. Ozlem Tureci, one of the leading #WomenInScience in the race for a #COVID-19 vaccine," UNESCO said on Twitter.

"Regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion, science only becomes powerful when it can benefit from greater diversity," it said, using the fight racism and generation equality hashtags.

Food for thought from Dr. Özlem Türeci, one of the leading #WomenInScience in the race for a #COVID19 vaccine.

Regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion, science only becomes powerful when it can benefit from greater diversity. 🙌#FightRacism I #GenerationEquality pic.twitter.com/bul7DPCodi

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳😷 (@UNESCO) February 12, 2021

The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine was developed by spouses Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin, who are both children of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

The couple, who founded the pharmaceutical company BioNTech, made headlines in international media, and was widely praised as "an immigration success story."

BioNTech aims to produce a total of 2 billion doses of the vaccine this year in six production facilities in different countries.