The Ars COVID-19 vaccine primer: 100-plus in the works, 8 in clinical trials

Enlarge / HUBEI, CHINA - APRIL 15: (CHINA MAINLAND OUT)220 volunteers from Wuhan are vaccinated with the novel coronavirus vaccine, which is in a human clinical trial. (credit: Getty | TPG)

The clearest way out of the COVID-19 crisis is to develop a safe, effective vaccine-and scientists have wasted no time in getting started.

They have at least 102 vaccine candidates in development worldwide. Eight of those have already entered early clinical trials in people. At least two have protected a small number of monkeys from infection with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes COVID-19.

Some optimistic vaccine developers say that, if all goes perfectly, we could see large-scale production and limited deployment of vaccines as early as this fall. If true, it would be an extraordinary achievement. Less than four months ago, SARS-CoV-2 was an unnamed, never-before-seen virus that abruptly emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Researchers there quickly identified it and, by late January, had deciphered and shared its genetic code, allowing researchers around the world to get to work on defeating it. By late February, researchers on multiple continents were working up clinical trials for vaccine candidates. By mid-March, two of them began, and volunteers began receiving the first jabs of candidate vaccines against COVID-19.

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