You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hey everybody, Emily Kwong here in Formatty who is off today.

So Joe Palca, science correspondent, you are stuck with me.

I can love that.

Joe, you have been reporting on the pandemic for months now and specifically one crucial

part of this story, vaccines.

Right.

I think vaccines are pretty much the way out of this.

Most people agree.

It's been so far the most successful tool in preventing infectious disease.

But of course we don't have a vaccine right now.

And so that's why we're doing all these other things like shutting things down

and social distancing and wearing masks and washing our hands, etc.

Until we do have a vaccine that's safe and effective and available.

Right.

And we're basically hiding from the virus in the meantime.

Right.

But I've heard that vaccines have traditionally taken years to develop.

So what are we doing to speed up the process?

Well, quite a lot actually.

And just to give you one example, a couple of weeks ago, I got a virtual tour

of a vaccine facility in Baltimore.

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