As both renowned and small companies rush to introduce new COVID-19 vaccines, the American public’s dream may finally come true. Various expert teams, scientists, and other entities across the globe have conducted thorough research and propositions for a new curable vaccine. Despite the innumerable challenges that prevail in providing an effective vaccine to the large public, our only hope in returning to normality is to continue following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and anticipate an abundance of effective cures. 

The trajectory to a successful vaccine often requires multiple trials and errors along with delays, and many Americans are questioning whether the vaccine will be accessible at all. While there is no promising date, month, or year of when a vaccine will be available, there is clear evidence that our world is on track to recovery. 

BioNTech, a pharmaceutical company founded by a German couple, initially partnered with Pfizer, an American corporation, to develop a flu vaccine in 2018. However, in efforts to defeat an infectious disease that has killed more than 1.2 million people globally, BioNTech and Pfizer have recently collaborated on developing a coronavirus vaccine. 

On Nov. 9, the two pharmaceutical companies announced that they have developed a potential vaccine that is “90% effective in preventing the disease among trial volunteers who had no evidence of having previously been infected,” reported The New York Times.  

While the collaborative vaccine has proven to be nearly effective during the trial process, the results were immediately vaulted. Many experts are optimistic about the collaborative vaccine being the first approved cure worldwide. With the “successful” vaccine, Dr. Ugur Sahin, the co-chief executive of BioNTech, is also quite hopeful about their vaccine being the first approved cure.

“There are not too many companies on the planet which have the capacity and the competence to do it so fast as we can do it,” he continued. “So it felt not like an opportunity, but a duty to do it because I realized we could be among the first coming up with a vaccine.”

However, various concerns remain in the eyes of many, including the CDC. Public health experts worry that distributing and prioritizing vaccines may be a concern in delays while incentivizing people to get vaccinated is the biggest hurdle.

Joe Biden, the president-elect, and his coronavirus team have agreed on the country’s plans to distribute vaccines globally before providing them to the American people. The Fair Priority Model, a three-phase plan for vaccine distribution, prioritizes “fair international distribution of vaccines” rather than “vaccine nationalism.”

The model supports “distributing the vaccine internationally, which means giving away or selling doses of the vaccine before it’s available to every citizen in that country,” oncologist Dr. Ezekiel Emaneul told Scientific American.

Even with efforts to push the vaccine as soon as next year, “there may not be enough doses through 2021 to immunize those who need it,” said CNBC.

With the deep divisions in Congress, economists say that a relief package is unlikely to pass before the presidential inauguration in January. As a result, many public health experts predict that the first coronavirus vaccines will not be widely available until April 2021.

In hopes that vaccines will arrive as soon as the following year, millions of Americans are elated to hear that an optimistic future awaits. However, to ultimately solve our nation’s problems of surging coronavirus cases, our country needs to continue complying with CDC guidelines and mandated orders.

Photo courtesy of NYTIMES.COM