A major final stage study of a single-shot vaccine to combat the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 is launching today.
Johnson & Johnson is leading the study, as it will be one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccine studies to date.
They are testing the shot in 60,000 volunteers scattered across the globe. Some of the participants will be in the U.S., with others in South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
Other vaccines – include a couple shots by Modern and Pfizer – are also in late-stage testing.
Officials hope that vaccines can be ready to launch later this fall, or by the start of 2021.
“We want to do everything we can without sacrificing safety or efficacy — we’re not going to do that — to make sure that we end up with vaccines that are going to save lives,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told reporters on Wednesday.
Some skeptics are concerned about pressures being applied by the Trump Administration on the Food and Drug Administration to get a vaccine out quickly, rather than most-safely.
Most agree that even if a vaccine launches this year, it will take until the second quarter of 2021 to have it be widely distributed. Tougher standards for any would-be vaccine were also said to be coming from the FDA. However, specifics had not yet been announced.
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