Why Will It Take So Long to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine? – Mother Jones

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You have perhaps seen on news programs that there are already several dozen potential coronavirus vaccines in development already. Some of them have even been given to people! So whats the deal with the 12-18 month timeline to get them ready for widespread deployment? Heres a quick primer:

Most vaccines work by using a weakened or dead version of the virus, which stimulates your immune system into creating antibodies without actually making you sick. However, it generally takes 3-6 months just to develop these attenuated viruses, and we dont have the time for that.

This adds up to 15-27 months. Since new techniques are being used and we have never developed a coronavirus vaccine before, the low end of this estimate is unlikely. Even with lots of different groups pursuing lots of different avenues, 18-24 months is a lot more likely. Maybe a little less for emergency use on a smallish number of people. (And who would pick these lucky folks?) Maybe more if were being too optimistic about how well these trials will go.

The rest is here:

Why Will It Take So Long to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine? - Mother Jones