Coronavirus Vaccine

Coronavirus+Vaccine

With over seven million coronavirus cases in the United States these last six months, everybody is curious about a future vaccine. The coronavirus (Covid-19) is a collection of viruses that cause symptoms of the common flu and respiratory problems. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a virus that is closely related to COVID. Using the SARS vaccine from years ago, scientists are trying to perfect it to be used again now. Despite their hard effort, researchers are facing many challenges. Researchers need to make sure they are ensuring vaccine safety. Several vaccines have been tested on animals but did not prevent infection and some even caused complications. The vaccine also has to be providing long-term protection while being safe for people over the age of fifty.

Older people are at higher risk and usually don’t respond well to new vaccines. The development of vaccines can take years and they aren’t expecting the coronavirus vaccine to be ready anytime soon. Before any vaccine is used on people, they test on animals for three to six months to make sure it is safe. Once they begin testing on humans they start out in small groups, if the vaccine seems to be effective they start testing larger groups of people. Since this pandemic is very serious the vaccine regulators are trying to fast track these steps to have the vaccine ready as soon as possible. Even when the vaccine is approved it will take a while to distribute and administer the results and since everybody is different, some people will reject the vaccine meaning a different vaccine will be needed too. Until the vaccine is available it is important for everyone to social distance, wear masks when around others, wash your hands often, and stay away from anyone who feels sick.