Here's the latest on COVID-19 vaccines
COVID-19 vaccines have reached consumers in record time. Though the process can typically take 10 to 15 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency authorization to vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna in less than a year. Before now, the fastest-ever vaccine—for mumps—took four years to develop in the 1960s.
Yet even after a vaccine is authorized or fully licensed, it faces potential roadblocks when it comes to scaling up production and distribution, which also includes deciding which populations should get it first—and at what cost. CDC director Robert Redfield, vaccine developers, and the FDA have said it’s unlikely COVID-19 vaccines will be widely available until the middle of 2021. (Here's why determining who is “first in line” for the vaccine depends on your state.)
Yet several efforts are underway to help produce and distribute the vaccines more quickly. Here’s everything you need to know—including primers on how vaccines and clinical trials work, the latest news on vaccine distribution and safety, and a detailed breakdown of each of the candidates that have reached phase three and beyond.
Vaccines and clinical trials
More than 60 vaccines are still going through a three-stage clinical trial process that’s required before they are sent to regulatory agencies for approval. Given the urgent need, some vaccine developers have compressed the clinical process for SARS-CoV-2 by running trial phases simultaneously.
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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker-how-they-work-latest-developments-cvd/
