Coronavirus vaccine: Are we close to finding one? Here’s what’s happening – CNET

Experts are hopeful that a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will become available sooner rather than later.

NewCoronavirus cases are on the rise in 45 states across the US. This has prompted at least 19 state governments topause or roll back their reopening plans in an effort to curb the emergence of asecond wave of the virus. Many experts say the only way to bring an end to the pandemic is through an effective vaccine. For people in the US who've grown weary oflockdowns, social distancingand the polarizing issue of face masks, it can't come soon enough.

So, how close are we to a vaccine for COVID-19? Possibly closer than you think.

Keep track of the coronavirus pandemic.

Vaccines typically take years -- sometimes decades -- to develop, approve, manufacture anddistribute globally. However, there have never been so many doctors and scientists working this hard and fast at it. Just half a year since SARS-CoV-2 was first discovered,17 vaccine candidates are already in human trials, with dozens more still being developed. Here's what's happening now.

This article updates frequently and is intended to be a general overview, not a source of medical advice. If you're seeking more information about coronavirus testing,here's how to find a testing sitenear you. Here'show to know if you qualify for a testandhow to get an at-home coronavirus test.

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An effective coronavirus vaccine might be the only way to bring a stop to preventative measures, like social distancing and face masks.

Operation Warp Speedis a sort of coronavirus vaccine task force that has identified14 vaccine projectsto focus on fast-tracking. The Warp Speed project has a stated goal of readying300 million doses of vaccineto be available by January 2021, which coincides with Fauci's estimation.

Talking to JAMA editor in chief Howard Bauchner in June, Fauci said Operation Warp Speed is financially backing efforts to start manufacturing doses while clinical trials are still ongoing. That means, if and when those vaccines do get approved, there will already be a store of doses ready to distribute nationally.

Thanks to theOperation Warp Speedvaccine acceleration program, Fauci said he expects the US will have "hundreds of millions of doses" of the vaccine ready to deploy by early 2021. However, if a significant percentage of Americans refuse a coronavirus vaccine, the US might not reach the critical level ofherd immunityneeded to end the pandemic, he said during aninterview posted on YouTube on June 28.

Experts say recent surges in coronavirus cases aren't merely the result of the US doing more testing, as a higher percentage of those tested are coming up positive compared to earlier stages of the pandemic.

Modernahas been making headlines for its coronavirus vaccine development -- both positive and negative. Early reports that Moderna's first trialsshowed promise for immunitycaused itsstock to soar. Soon after, however, scientistscast doubt on the company's data, causing thesame stocks to falter.

Moderna is a beneficiary of the USFood and Drug Administration's program to fast-track vaccines. Thefast-track processexpedites approval by allowing select labs to submit their review process in phases, rather than submitting all sections of the application at once, which is the usual way. The company ranPhase 1 clinical trialsand reportedpreliminary data that it says supports the moveto a larger Phase 2 trial, which is currently ongoing. Phase 3 is reportedly slated for July. You can learn more about Moderna's vaccine candidate,mRNA-1273.

Another vaccine is under development atOxford Universityin the UK. Scientists there say that vaccinecould be ready by the fall of 2020. Oxford is working with pharmaceutical giantAstraZeneca. Its vaccine candidate was slated to beginsimultaneous Phase 2 and Phase 3 trialsin June.

Scientists say in a paper thatthe results from Oxford's trialson mice and rhesus monkeys aremixed, however, speculating that humans who eventually take the vaccinemight still be able to spreadthe virus. You can read more about this effort, calledChAdOx1 nCoV-19, at AstraZeneca's website.

We won't know for a long time, but Fauci co-authored apaper about vaccines published May 11 in the journal Sciencethat suggests it might takeseveral different vaccinesmade and distributed by different labs in order to effectively eradicate COVID-19 from the planet.

A vaccine is a medical treatment that protects you against a disease like the coronavirus or smallpox. For a deeper dive into how vaccines work, check outthis in-depth coronavirus treatment explainer by CNET's Science Editor Jackson Ryan. The short and sweet of it is that a vaccine tricks your body into thinking it's already had the disease, so your body's natural defense -- the immune system --builds antibodies against it. Then, if you were to become infected, your body would call upon the antibodies to fight the virus before you feel sick.

Vaccines typically take about10 to 15 years to develop. That's in part because any new medical treatment needs to be thoroughly tested for safety before it can be distributed to millions or billions of people. Themumps vaccine took four years, which is widely considered the fastest vaccine approval in the history of infectious disease. Even if one or more of the vaccines now in the works turns out to be effective,the FDA approval processtypically takes a year or longer.

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Most health experts predict that the virus won't stop spreading until 60% to 70% of the world'spopulation is immune, and they say the only way to reach that level of immunity without amonumental death toll is through vaccines. Such is the opinion ofCarl T. Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington andNatalie Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, in a joint editorialpublished in the New York Times.

Statistically, only about 6% of vaccine candidates ever make it through to market, according to a Reuters special report, and not just because they don't work. There's a whole litany of problems that could cancel even a promising candidate.

Take, for example, what happened when scientists tried to develop a vaccine for SARS --it backfired and actually made people more susceptible to the disease. The same thing happened with avaccine for Dengue fever. To make matters worse, coronaviruses are a large class of viruses andso far there are no vaccines for any of them.

However, this particular coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has some unique traits that may help researchers working on a vaccine. For example, some viruses, like the flu, mutate quickly and often, which is why there's a new flu vaccine every year. Early evidencesuggests that the coronavirus doesn't appear to do that. Althoughsome researchers have hypothesized that a more contagious strain has developed, others aren't so sure.

Either way, it's thought that the virus has not yet mutated significantly enough to disrupt vaccine development, nor is it expected to, though it's too soon to say for certain, and there are still many unknowns about the virus' behavior.

Rules and regulations vary by country, but, generally speaking, most industrialized nations have similar protocols for approving a vaccine. The following path is how vaccines are approved in the US under the FDA:

Until there's a vaccine, expect safety precautions like face masks and social distancing to be a part of everyday life.

The longer we go without a vaccine, the more likely focus will shift toward treatments, such as theexperimental antiviral drug remdesivir, which has reportedly shown promising results. With effective therapeutic treatments, many viruses that used to be fatal are no longer death sentences. Patients with HIV, for example, can now expect to enjoythe same life expectancyas non-HIV-positive individuals, thanks to tremendous advances in treatment.

Without a coronavirus vaccine, the road back to "normal life" may be harder and longer, but not necessarily impossible.Coronavirus testing, includingantibody testing, andcontact-tracingefforts would need to intensify, experts say.

Lockdown measures are alreadylifting throughout the world, although with a potential second wave of coronavirus infections, cities could bring back certain quarantine measures, including requiringface masksandsocial distancing. Eventually, the global population may reach the 60% to 70% rate required forherd immunityto protect those who aren't immune.

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Coronavirus vaccine: Are we close to finding one? Here's what's happening - CNET