The Race For A Vaccine

Last January, as news of the coronavirus in China was just beginning to spread around the world, scientists at a vaccine research laboratory in Boston dropped everything they were working on and threw themselves into an urgent mission: finding a vaccine for this deadly new contagion.

Ever since then, researchers at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have worked around the clock, trying to accomplish in months scientific breakthroughs that normally take years. Despite the enormity of the task, they are making progress.

“I’m even more optimistic now than I was several months ago,” says Dr. Dan Barouch, the center’s director and one of the world’s leading vaccine-makers.

Barouch’s lab in Boston is one of more than 100 teams of researchers around the globe desperately working to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. Never before have so many scientists from so many nations been so focused on a single goal. And they’re trying to do it faster than anyone has ever made a vaccine before.

Last January, news of the coronavirus in China was just beginning to spread around the world. At the same time, scientists at a vaccine research laboratory in Boston dropped all of their work. They then launched an urgent mission: finding a vaccine for this deadly new contagion.

Ever since then, researchers at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have worked around the clock. In just several months, they’ve pushed for scientific breakthroughs that normally take years. Despite how massive and difficult their work is, they are making progress.

“I’m even more optimistic now than I was several months ago,” says Dr. Dan Barouch, the center’s director and one of the world’s leading vaccine-makers.

Barouch’s lab in Boston is only one team doing this type of work. In fact, more than 100 teams of researchers around the globe are desperately working to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. Never before have so many scientists from so many nations been so focused on a single goal. And they’re trying to do it faster than anyone has ever made a vaccine before.

That’s because the devastation of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has been so vast: In just the first eight months of this year, more than 22 million people worldwide were infected with the virus, and more than 781,000 were killed. The United States has been one of the hardest-hit nations in the world; as this issue went to press, it accounted for about one-fourth of all cases and deaths. And the numbers keep rising.

Desperate to contain the virus, many countries and U.S. states closed schools and businesses this past spring. Millions of people were urged to stay home. Health experts say such measures helped slow the spread, but they took a devastating toll on the global economy. In the U.S., tens of millions of people lost their jobs. More than 100,000 companies went out of business. And more than one-quarter of Americans reported not having dependable access to food.

That’s because Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has caused so much damage. In just the first eight months of this year, more than 22 million people worldwide were infected with the virus. In that amount of time, more than 781,000 have been killed. The United States has been one of the hardest-hit nations in the world. As this issue went to press, the U.S. accounted for about one-fourth of all cases and deaths. And the numbers keep rising.

Nations around the globe have been trying to contain the virus. Many countries and U.S. states closed schools and businesses this past spring. Millions of people were urged to stay home. Health experts say such measures helped slow the spread. But these efforts have taken a devastating toll on the global economy. In the U.S., tens of millions of people lost their jobs. More than 100,000 companies went out of business. And more than one-quarter of Americans reported not having dependable access to food.

Struggling to balance safety with protecting jobs, parts of the U.S. and several other nations let businesses reopen. But some areas then saw a huge surge in cases. Experts warn that without a vaccine, that trend will continue.

“The virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly, and most people are still susceptible,” says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who leads the World Health Organization.

So far, scientists have identified one medication that can speed up recovery from Covid-19 and another that may help the sickest patients to survive. But it’s much more critical to find a vaccine, which can prevent people from falling ill in the first place.

“This is a pandemic unlike any we’ve seen in 100 years,” says Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “This virus will continue to threaten us and disrupt our lives until we develop a vaccine. That’s why it’s a priority for everyone.”

Struggling to balance safety with protecting jobs, parts of the U.S. and several other nations let businesses reopen. But some areas then saw a huge surge in cases. Experts warn that without a vaccine, that trend will continue.

“The virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly, and most people are still susceptible,” says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who leads the World Health Organization.

So far, scientists have identified one medication that can speed up recovery from Covid-19 . They also found another one that may help the sickest patients to survive. But it’s much more critical to find a vaccine, which can prevent people from falling ill in the first place.

“This is a pandemic unlike any we’ve seen in 100 years,” says Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “This virus will continue to threaten us and disrupt our lives until we develop a vaccine. That’s why it’s a priority for everyone.”

In the past century, vaccines have transformed public health. Devastating diseases such as smallpox and polio used to kill millions of people, but now vaccines have essentially wiped them out in much of the world.

“Vaccines are one of the most life-saving technologies that humans ever invented,” says Adalja.

Vaccines work by teaching the immune system how to identify and defeat a particular virus or bacterium, usually by exposing a person to a weakened or inactivated version of it. A person who is vaccinated for a particular virus typically can’t get sick from that virus or give it to other people—at least for a certain period of time. As a result, the more people who are vaccinated against it, the less a virus can spread.

However, developing a vaccine can take years or even decades. The right formula needs to reliably trigger the immune system to react a certain way without causing any harmful side effects. Achieving that takes a lot of research and time. Plus, potential vaccines must be tested extensively to ensure they’re safe, and people who receive them must be observed over time. The fastest vaccine development—for the mumps in the 1960s—took four years.

But with new Covid-19 cases topping 200,000 a day globally this summer, world leaders have been pushing for a vaccine to be ready by early 2021—a little more than a year after the virus first emerged. That aggressive timeline is potentially doable because of the immense resources going into the effort.

In the past century, vaccines have transformed public health. Devastating diseases such as smallpox and polio used to kill millions of people. Now, vaccines have essentially wiped them out in much of the world.

“Vaccines are one of the most life-saving technologies that humans ever invented,” says Adalja.

Vaccines work by teaching the immune system how to identify and defeat infections. That usually happens by exposing a person to a weakened or inactivated version of a particular virus or bacterium. A person who is vaccinated for a particular virus typically can’t get sick from that virus or give it to other people. At least not for a certain period of time. As a result, the more people who are vaccinated against it, the less a virus can spread.

But developing a vaccine can take years or even decades. The right formula needs to reliably trigger the immune system to react a certain way. And it needs to do that without causing any harmful side effects. Achieving that takes a lot of research and time. Plus, potential vaccines must be tested far and wide to ensure they’re safe. People who receive them also have to be observed over time. The fastest vaccine development took four years. It was for the mumps in the 1960s.

New Covid-19 cases have been topping 200,000 a day globally this summer. That’s why world leaders have been pushing for a vaccine to be ready by early 2021. That’ll be a little more than a year after the virus first emerged. That aggressive timeline is potentially doable because many resources have been put into the effort.

“Typically, one or two companies are working on a vaccine to prevent [infection by] a particular bacteria or virus,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

But in this case, dozens of companies are working on options to prevent Covid-19. They’re trying every strategy that’s worked in developing vaccines in the past—as well as completely new approaches. And nations are investing billions of dollars in their work.

“When you have this level of interest and resources and expertise and money to make a vaccine, there’s every reason that we can make it more quickly than usual,” Offit says.

In fact, researchers have already started human testing for several potential coronavirus vaccines. Such tests track whether a vaccine is effective in preventing people from contracting the virus. They also reveal possible side effects and help determine how large a dose will be needed to create an immune response. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country had approved a vaccine for use in Russia without first finishing testing to be sure of its safety, an approach that many of the world’s scientists denounced as too risky.

In the U.S., if a vaccine proves successful in several rounds of human testing, it will go to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a safety review. That process can take a year. But because of Covid-19’s high death toll, President Trump and some U.S. lawmakers are urging scientists and the FDA to speed up the process—without compromising safety. Some companies are doing so by running multiple rounds of human testing at the same time—rather than waiting to see whether a vaccine succeeds in one round before moving on to the next.

The U.S. government is also starting to manufacture vaccines that appear the most promising before their final rounds of testing are finished. That way doses will be ready if they gain approval.

“Typically, one or two companies are working on a vaccine to prevent [infection by] a particular bacteria or virus,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

But in this case, dozens of companies are working on options to prevent Covid-19. They’re trying every strategy that’s worked in developing vaccines in the past. In some instances, they’re creating completely new approaches. And nations are investing billions of dollars in their work.

“When you have this level of interest and resources and expertise and money to make a vaccine, there’s every reason that we can make it more quickly than usual,” Offit says.

In fact, researchers have already started human testing for several potential coronavirus vaccines. Such tests show whether a vaccine is effective in preventing people from contracting the virus. They also reveal possible side effects and help determine how large a dose will be needed to create an immune response. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country had approved a vaccine for use in Russia. But the nation had done so without first finishing testing to be sure of its safety. It’s an approach that many of the world’s scientists denounced as too risky.

In the U.S., a vaccine has to be successful in several rounds of human testing before it’s advanced. At that point, it goes to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a safety review.

That process can take a year. But because of Covid-19’s high death toll, President Trump and some U.S. lawmakers are urging scientists and the FDA to speed up the process. And they want things to move quicker without compromising safety. Some companies are doing so by running multiple rounds of human testing at the same time. Under normal conditions, they would wait to see whether a vaccine succeeds in one round before moving on to the next.

The U.S. government is also starting to manufacture vaccines that appear the most promising before their final rounds of testing are finished. That way, doses will be ready if they gain approval.

But researchers need to be certain that a vaccine has no harmful side effects first, explains Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiology professor at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut.

“We’re giving the vaccine to healthy people, so the safety is absolutely critical,” she says.

Despite the massive efforts to develop a vaccine, there’s no guarantee that it will happen, Iwasaki says. Scientists have been trying for decades to find a vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, without success. And even if a vaccine is developed, there are worries that some people may refuse to take it, fearing possible side effects (see “Vaccine Skeptics,” below).

But researchers need to be certain that a vaccine has no harmful side effects first, explains Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiology professor at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut.

“We’re giving the vaccine to healthy people, so the safety is absolutely critical,” she says.

Despite the massive efforts to develop a vaccine, there’s no guarantee that it will happen, Iwasaki says. Scientists have been trying for decades to find a vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. They haven’t had any success yet. And even if a vaccine is developed, there are worries that it won’t be taken. Some people may be afraid of possible side effects and refuse to take it (see “Vaccine Skeptics,” below).

But Iwasaki and many other health experts are optimistic that Covid-19 will be different. Scientists may even find more than one coronavirus vaccine, they say. If that happens, the last major hurdle would be making billions of doses. Companies would need to mass-produce the vaccine, along with vials, syringes, and other supplies. All that will take time.

“It won’t be available to everyone at the same time,” Adalja says. Instead, the first doses would likely go to health-care workers who are constantly exposed to people with Covid-19 and then to people at high risk of having severe complications from the disease.

Having a coronavirus vaccine could dramatically improve lives. Students could sit shoulder-to-shoulder in school cafeterias. Families could visit grandparents. Friends could gather for birthday parties. And countless deaths could be prevented.

“If you think about getting back to normal, what it was like before this coronavirus appeared,” Offit says, “the only way we will get there is with a vaccine.”

But Iwasaki and many other health experts are optimistic that Covid-19 will be different. They say that scientists may even find more than one coronavirus vaccine. If that happens, the last major hurdle would be making billions of doses. Companies would need to mass-produce the vaccine. They’ll also have to manufacture vials, syringes, and other supplies. All that will take time.

“It won’t be available to everyone at the same time,” Adalja says. Instead, the first doses would likely go to health-care workers. That’s because they’re constantly exposed to people with Covid-19. After them, it’ll likely go to people at high risk of having severe complications from the disease.

Having a coronavirus vaccine could dramatically improve lives. Students could sit shoulder-to-shoulder in school cafeterias. Families could visit grandparents. Friends could gather for birthday parties. And countless deaths could be prevented.

“If you think about getting back to normal, what it was like before this coronavirus appeared,” Offit says, “the only way we will get there is with a vaccine.”

With reporting by Carl Zimmer of The Times.

With reporting by Carl Zimmer of The Times.