Affiliated vaccine injury attorney David Carney recently elected to President of the VIP Bar Association

Is a Coronavirus Vaccine Coming Soon?



On March 16, 2020, it was reported the Kaiser Permanente in Seattle, Washington performed the first human trial to test a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. From what began in February 2020 as Chinese scientists began to decode and study the virus’ genetic composition has been distributed and given hope towards a vaccine in the United States. Research labs and universities around the United States are developing different vaccines in the hope of approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although this news may be exciting, it noted throughout the scientific community that a widely distributable and effective vaccine is still twelve (12) to eighteen (18) months away. In order to accelerate the release dates of their vaccines, medical facilities and companies have evaluated a possible vaccine by implementing information studied from other drugs used to prevent and/or fight diseases with similar genetic compounds. It is beneficial to also note research and pharmaceutical facilities are not starting their research from nothing. Companies have used their resources and artificial intelligence systems to evaluate known drug compounds to determine what the safest and most effective combination would be to create a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. To date, researchers have taken this intensive information to be more confident in their abilities to expedite the testing process set forth by the FDA. In order for a drug or vaccine to be approved by the FDA, it must undergo many stages including early clinical testing. Due to the increasing information presented to medical research companies and public labs, some have felt confident in combining the animal and human testing. The combination of human and animal subjects has been met with some alarm as it may place human subjects at risk due to the lack of animal testing. Although such a drastic step may pose significant risks at an early stage, such companies have made their primary research stage longer to evaluate the effectiveness and have limited the number of human recipients of the vaccine. Additionally, another obstacle for a quick approval for a COVID-19 vaccine is the broad clinical trial requirements set forth by the FDA. To complete the clinical trial phase, the vaccine must be tested on a small number of healthy adults, a larger number of adults in an area where the disease has spread, and on thousands of people in an area where the disease has spread. Each of these individual phases, is projected to last at least six (6) to eight (8) months. Companies face the challenge of finding people to participate in the trials and transporting the vaccine, doctors and other resources to areas that are heavily affected by this pandemic. In order to alleviate this obstacle, public health organizations, and private philanthropic organizations have donated billions of dollars dedicated to those conducting clinical trials to search for candidates to participate, and resources to safely and quickly administer and study the effects of the vaccine without risk to the researchers, patients, or vaccine Although the immediate likelihood of a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 is low, there is still hope a vaccine will be found and approved. Those in the scientific and medical, and philanthropic community have donated billions of dollars in resources to create a vaccine. Finally, although there has only been one widely reported vaccine given, more cases likely soon to follow. As of March 26, 2020, there are nearly 491,000 reported cases of Coronavirus including nearly 69,000 cases in the United States.

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