by Jason Hopkins
A number of vaccines are being developed to protect against the coronavirus, with results expected as soon as a few weeks, but it could be a year and a half before a final product hits the market.
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, there is growing interest in a vaccine that could protect individuals from the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that more than 20 vaccines are currently in development, but health professionals working with the Trump administration say it could take quite a while before one is “deployable.”
“More than 20 vaccines are in development globally, and several therapeutics are in clinical trials. We expect the initial results within a few weeks,” read a WHO statement provided to the Daily Caller on Tuesday.
“Integrating clinical trials of experimental therapeutics as part of the response during infectious disease outbreaks is increasingly recognized as important for determining efficacy of potential therapies,” the statement continued.
While results in a matter of weeks sounds like an expeditious timeline, the head of a top disease research institution made clear on Monday that availability for such a vaccine would take much longer.
“Let me make sure you get the … information. A vaccine that you make and start testing in a year is not a vaccine that’s deployable,” said Dr. Antony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Cabinet Room meeting with pharmaceutical executives and members of the administration’s coronavirus task force.
Fauci’s remarks came after a reporter asked about a timeline for a coronavirus vaccine. President Donald Trump had initially suggested “about three to four months in a couple of cases, a year in other cases” for a product, but the doctor jumped in to note that a deployable vaccine would take longer.
“So he’s asking the question — when is it going to be deployable? And that is going to be, at the earliest, a year to a year and a half, no matter how fast you go,” Fauci said.
The coronavirus, which originated last year in Wuhan, China, has begun spreading in the United States. So far, that have been slightly over 100 reported cases across 15 states. A total of six individuals in the U.S. have died from the virus, all of them in King County, Washington.
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Jason Hopkins is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
