6 July 2020 - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has unleashed major and substantial changes in the provision of health care, including public health policy and the practice of medicine, and in the ways most individuals live their lives.

Significant changes also have occurred in vaccine development, with shortening the usual 15- to 20-year timeline to one that might be as short as 1 to 1.5 years. COVID-19, the acute illness due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019, and rapidly progressed to a global pandemic. By June 27, 2020, a total of 9.76 million people had been infected with this virus and 492 000 had died. 

Although widespread quarantine, isolation, and social distancing measures have, to some extent, countered the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and “flattened the curve,” countries now face a multitude of challenges to the “re-opening” of society. Yet, it is clear the only way to provide effective herd immunity is with a safe and effective vaccine.

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