The long game: the race for a vaccine against all coronaviruses

There is hope that Covid-19 immunisation might soon be a reality, but some scientists are aiming for a broader solution

• Coronavirus - latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Hopes have been raised worldwide this week that a Covid-19 vaccine is getting closer, after one version was shown to be 90% effective in reducing disease symptoms, but a handful of scientists are working on an ambitious plan for a different sort of vaccine.

Their project, which is fraught with technical and financial challenges, is to find a vaccine that could protect against not just Covid, but other viruses in the same family that cause Sars, Mers and the common cold.