How close are we to a vaccine for Covid-19?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now in development. Most vaccines take years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine at record speed. Several potential vaccines are now in the final phase of testing but it could still be months before we discover if they are safe and can effectively prevent people from being infected.
If a vaccine can be found, there are concerns about how the world will manufacture enough. There may be challenges in storing it at the right temperature and transporting it safely around the world. Plus, rich countries might hoard supplies. Although hopes are high it is entirely possible that a safe and effective vaccine is a long way off, or never discovered. Experts warn that ‘waiting for a vaccine syndrome’ could be distracting us from finding other solutions for controlling the spread of Covid-19.
Presenter: Tanya Beckett
(A scientist works on an experimental coronavirus vaccine at a laboratory in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Credit: Juan Mabromata/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:03.6 | I'm Tanya Beckett. |
| 0:05.1 | Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. On Tuesday the 11th of August Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged on TV flanked by Russian flags. |
| 0:25.0 | Putin said no coronavirus infect. |
| 0:29.0 | Putin announced that Russia had approved the first vaccine for COVID-19, a pandemic |
| 0:38.9 | that's thought to have racked up a global death toll of some three quarters of a million people. |
| 0:46.4 | The vaccine was named Sputnik 5, a reference to the surprise 1957 launch of the world's first satellite by the Soviet Union. |
| 0:57.0 | Putin was drawing a not so subtle parallel between the space race during the Cold War and the global |
| 1:05.1 | race for a vaccine. The Russian president said his own daughter had been given |
| 1:11.6 | the vaccine and was doing fine. |
| 1:14.8 | The news was met with alarm and disbelief. |
| 1:18.5 | Only about 76 people had received the vaccine, and it hadn't been through the third phase of trials in which |
| 1:25.3 | thousands of people are normally tested. The vaccine may be waved through in Russia but |
| 1:32.2 | almost certainly no other country would approve its use. |
| 1:36.0 | So, how close are we to a vaccine against COVID-19. |
| 1:47.0 | Part 1. Tricking the System Our first expert witness is Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Columbia's Center for |
| 2:05.0 | infection and immunity. When do you think we might see the first vaccine? I mean the |
| 2:10.5 | point at which somebody holds up a viol and says, here it is. I think the point at which somebody holds up a viol and says here it is. |
| 2:14.2 | I think the earliest we might see it is the very end of 2020 or the first couple months |
| 2:19.7 | of 2021. |
| 2:21.8 | Research institutes, pharmaceutical companies and state agencies. 2021. the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 20 million people globally. |
| 2:36.0 | Three vaccines from China, two from America and one from the UK, |
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