HealthDay Reports: A COVID-19 Vaccine by Fall Is Possible, But at What Cost?
What would need to happen to get a COVID-19 vaccine by fall? Having one by then is possible, but experts warn that speeding up the process of creating a vaccine raises some important issues about safety and testing along the way.
A COVID-19 Vaccine by Fall Is Possible, But at What Cost?
MONDAY, May 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Efforts to create a COVID-19 vaccine are proceeding at an unprecedented pace, with eight different candidates now being tested in humans around the world.
But to have a vaccine available for widespread use by early next year could entail bending some rules regarding safety and testing -- actions that might put the health, and possibly the lives, of test volunteers at risk.
"It is possible to have a vaccine by the fall or winter," said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "It is not possible to have a vaccine by fall or winter that has gone through the usual safety testing. Speed is a tradeoff with safety."
The government's leading vaccine expert -- Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases -- raised eyebrows in late April when he declared it "doable" to have millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine ready for distribution by January.