COVID-19 Vaccine Unlikely Before September 2021, Say Experts

As the world races to develop a potential vaccine against the novel coronavirus, the recent development may come as a blow to many.

An effective vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall (end of September) of 2021, according to experts working in the field of vaccine development.

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Researchers from McGill University in Canada

A survey of 28 experts working in vaccinology in late June 2020 was carried out by researchers at McGill University in Canada. The majority of those surveyed were mostly Canadian or American academics with an average of 25 years of experience working in the field.

"In general they seem to believe that a publicly available vaccine next summer is the best-case scenario with the possibility that it may take until 2022," said Jonathan Kimmelman, a professor at McGill University and senior author on the paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

AFP

False alarm

Many experts also believe that there may be some false alarms before an effective vaccine is available.

¡°The experts we surveyed believe that there is a 1 in 3 chance that the vaccine will receive a safety warning label after approval, and a 4 in 10 chance that the first large field study will not report efficacy,¡± added Patrick Kane, the lead author of the paper, a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University.

Reuters

This comes only two days after India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday said that the first vaccine in India will most likely be available by early 2021.

The health ministry said the research to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is being "done expeditiously".

During a media briefing, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said, "There are at least three viable such vaccine candidates that are in the phase of clinical trials right now in the country. We¡¯re hopeful that within 1st quarter of 2021 it will be available", as quoted by ANI.