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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its spread, harming and hampering lives and economies, one thing is clear: we need a vaccine.<\/p>\nAs the COVID-19 pandemic continues its spread, harming and hampering lives and economies, one thing is clear: we need a vaccine.<\/p>\n
Dr. Steven Zeichner, a University of Virginia infectious diseases specialist and researcher, is responding to that challenge. He is using existing technologies and techniques to develop a unique vaccine-making method that he hopes will not only rapidly produce a safe and effective vaccine, but one that is low-cost and highly manufacturable.<\/p>\n
Here, he discusses vaccines generally, and his particular approach to vaccine development.<\/p>\n
Q. When do you think an approved COVID-19 vaccine will become available?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. That\u2019s still an open question. A year or so from now would be wonderful, but that would be very fast for a new vaccine because there are a lot of things that can go wrong in development. I would be delighted to see it happen.<\/p>\n It would need to first be widely tested in Phase III clinical trials, and then, if proven safe and effective, would have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It then would have to be produced in sufficient quantities to elicit immunity in a significant fraction of the population.<\/p>\n