INSIDE THE RACE TO DEVELOP AND DISTRIBUTE
THE DRUGS THAT WILL END THE CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC
By Alice ParkWHEN WILL
WE GET
A VACCINE?
effective shots, if manufacturers can distribute them to
enough people and if enough of those people actually
get immunized.
Vaccines rely on the idea of herd immunity, a type of
biological fortress in which the vast majority of the popu-
lation is protected against infection. One way to get there
is via natural infection, which involves enough people
getting infected and recovering without serious conse-
quences. But many public-health experts say pushing to
open businesses and schools, so healthy people who might
not get seriously ill if infected can develop this immunity,
is a dangerous strategy that leaves too much to chance;
there is no way to predict how much time it will take, and
along the way the virus will keep harming and killing peo-
ple until enough people become immune.
Vaccines have been the scientific detour around natural
immunity—offering the benefits of protection without the
suffering and unpredictability—since Edward Jenner, inhe cleverest of enemies thrive on surprise
attacks. Viruses—and corona viruses in particular—
know this well. Remaining hidden in animal hosts
for decades, they mutate steadily, sometimes seren-
dipitously morphing into more effective and efficient in-
fectious agents. When a strain with just the right combi-
nation of genetic codes that spell trouble for people makes
the leap from animal to human, the ambush begins.
Such was the case with SARS-CoV-2, the corona virus
behind COVID-19, and the attack was mostly silent and
insidious at first. Many people infected with SARS-CoV-2
remained oblivious as they served as the virus’s new home
and allowed it to establish a foothold in the global human
population. These hosts were the perfect base camp for
launching the attack that has upended social norms, econ-
omies, political systems and more all across the world.
The best hope for confronting this onslaught is a
vaccine —if the furious research efforts under way yield