The entire world is anxiously awaiting a COVID-19 vaccine, clinging to the current estimates of12 to 18 months.
Under normal circumstances, vaccine development is a complicated, tenuous process.
There is no guarantee we willeverhave a vaccine.
We dont know a whole lot about immunity for this virus, Troisi says.
Other antibodiesones that we still havent foundcould be the ones that can actually confer immunity.
The speed at which weve developed and produced candidate vaccines is absolutely unprecedented.
You have to try a multitude of approaches in the hopes that one of them will be successful.
Do we have enough vaccines under development?
What else is coming down the pike?
There are an awful lot of innovative ideas for this vaccine, Cooke says.
Even though there are ways to speed testing up, it is still a long process.
We just have to keep trying until we find the right one.
Immunity could be short-lived
Every year, we get a new flu shot.
Even with a shot, we sometimes catch the flu anyway.
This is because the flu is a virus that mutates rapidly.
Viruses could mutate, Cooke says.
They could mutate to a point where they are no longer sensitive to the vaccine you have generated.
Once more people get immunity via a vaccine, we might see more mutation.
