Army researcher: Coronavirus vaccine may be available by end of year

A senior Army researcher said Tuesday that a coronavirus vaccine could possibly be available to some parts of the United States within the year.

Col. Wendy Sammons-Jackson, director of the Military Infectious Disease Research Program, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that it was “reasonable to expect that there will be some form of a vaccine.”

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Earlier this month, President Trump announced a public-private partnership to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by year-end in what is being called “Operation Warp Speed.” Biotech company Moderna reached a significant milestone last month when it announced that its potential COVID-19 vaccine produced antibodies in all 45 participants in a trial.

Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, another researcher, said scientists were learning about the virus at a faster pace than other infectious diseases in the past.

“So, going to a vaccine in a matter of months, from concept all the way to Phase Three clinical trials and potentially licensure is unprecedented,” he said. “But in this case I think very much is possible.”

The federal government is working with international companies to develop anti-body drugs, officials said. The military plans to test its own vaccine sometime in the late summer, Reuters reported.