Does it ordinarily take years to produce vaccines?
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
By Lily R
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YES
Vaccines take years to be developed and to be proved both widely effective and safe.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines must pass through a six-step process. Three clinical development testing phases “may take 10 years or longer.”
Despite clear urgency, no one knows how long it may take to create and distribute a vaccine against COVID-19. “The public hasn't heard it loud and clear despite it being said by public health experts over and over again,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania in an April media interview. He predicted wide availability of any vaccine may not come until the third or fourth quarter of 2021.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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