US President Trump has said he believes a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year. But how likely is this?
It’s been over a month since the first human trial of a vaccine took place in the US city of Seattle.
But there’s still lots to do – even if the initial safety tests go well, the vaccine will still need to go through clinical trials, medicine regulators must approve it and a way of producing it on a huge scale must be developed.
Vaccines normally take years, if not decades, to develop. Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the new virus, known officially as Sars-CoV-2, first emerged.
That would be a huge scientific feat and there are no guarantees it will work.
Four coronaviruses already circulate in human beings. They cause common cold symptoms and we still don’t have vaccines for any of them.
Source:Â bbc.com