HOW FAST IS WARP SPEED?

WHERE WE STAND ON AN EFFECTIVE COVID -19 VACCINE

- Damien Martin

Finding effective treatments for COVID-19 and following medical advice on social distancing and wearing masks in public is one thing. But to really put the disease and its effect on daily life in the history books instead of the news requires an effective vaccine. Developing herd immunity without assistance could take a long time, and even then subsequent generations could be vulnerable to COVID-19 and periodic breakouts might plague humanity. Even in Sweden, which chose to avoid shutdowns, building herd immunity is “surprisingly slow,” according to state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell. Given that the entire world is deeply affected by COVID-19, resources and effort are going into developing a vaccine at a faster pace than any other in history. Once one proves effective, vaccine availability is the next giant hurdle.

CLINICAL TRIALS

It can normally take 10 to 15 years to develop a vaccine against a given infectious disease. After decades of research, there is still no vaccine against HIV. The Ebola vaccine Merck developed in four years is one of the fastest on record. However, HIV, Ebola, and other diseases don’t have the same everyday impact on huge swaths of people in developed nations the way COVID-19 does, and they don’t disrupt the world economy to anywhere near the same extent. So the imperative for a COVID-19 vaccine is much higher. Governments are eager to invest in one because solving this problem solves a lot of other problems.