The Guardian on the Coronavirus Vaccine

The Guardian has issued an article about the working progress of inventing a vaccine for COVID-19. The article implies that even with the most effective strategies from experts, success was only reached in slowing the spread of the respiratory disease. When the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, all attention was directed towards the prospect of a vaccine, because only a vaccine can prevent the public from getting infected in the first place.

“About 35 companies and academic institutions are racing to create a vaccine, at least four of which already have candidates they have been testing on animals. The first of these – produced by Boston-based biotech firm Moderna, will enter human trials imminently,” reads the article.

The article also states that this speedy process is due to Chinese transparency in tackling and studying the virus. Exceptional haste is “thanks in large part to early Chinese efforts to sequence the genetic material of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.” China shared that sequence in early January, permitting research groups around the planet to ‘grow the live virus and study how it invades’ human cells and body.

“The speed with which we have [produced these candidates] builds very much on the investment in understanding how to develop vaccines for other coronaviruses,” says Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Oslo-based nonprofit the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which is leading works to fund and coordinate a COVID-19 vaccine development.