Some type of vaccine for the coronavirus could be available to part of the U.S. population by the end of the year according to a senior U.S. Army vaccine researcher. The development of an effective vaccine is a critical issue for any broad return to "normalcy" following the nationwide lockdown that has effectively abated the outbreak of the potentially deadly COVID-19 outbreak that has cost over 100,000 deaths across the country.
During a Pentagon news briefing Tuesday, Colonel Wendy Sammons-Jackson, director of the U.S. Military Infectious Disease Research Program, said that it was "reasonable to expect that there will be some form of a vaccine that could be available at some level, to a certain population, by the end of the year."
Researchers were learning about the new virus "faster than we have about any other virus before," said fellow Army researcher, Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, who added "going to a vaccine in a matter of months, from concept all the way to Phase three clinical trials and potentially licensure is unprecedented. But in this case, I think very much is possible." Listen to the press conference—which took place in the form of a conference call—in its entirety here.
Military researchers revealed that they were collaborating with both U.S. and international companies, that include AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Sanofi SA on the development of vaccines and antibody drugs. They also noted that the military planned to test its own vaccine candidate on humans in the late summer.
Reuters reported in late May that scientists leading national efforts plan "a massive testing effort involving more than 100,000 volunteers and a half dozen or so of the most promising vaccine candidates to deliver a safe and effective one by the end of 2020."
As many parts of the nation start to reopen and return to a "new normal" of living that has citizens following social distancing guidelines, there are also many areas where there is also a return to cases (though in part due to wider testing.) The introduction of an effective vaccine will be an enormous step in a return to pre-pandemic normalcy.