First experimental coronavirus vaccine is tested on volunteer

Scientists injected a healthy volunteer with the vaccine at Seattle's Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute according to Global News. They are still awaiting results of the first-stage study of the vaccine that was quickly developed.

The leader of the study, Dr. Lisa Jackson said, “We’re team coronavirus now. Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency.”

The first participant of the study is an operations manager who works for a tech company. Three more people waited in line for the vaccine which will be received by 45 volunteers who will get two doses a month apart from each other.

Jennifer Haller, who is a 43-year-old from Seattle said, “We all feel so helpless. This is an amazing opportunity for me to do something.”

She has two teenagers who “think it’s cool” that she is taking part in the study.

After receiving the injection she said, “I’m feeling great.”

This is the beginning of many studies that have to be done in order to find out whether or not shots will work for the virus. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, if the research goes according to plan we will still have to wait 12 to 18 months for the vaccine to be available for large scale use.

In a statement released on Monday, Fauci noted that getting a vaccine “is an urgent public health priority.”

He added that the recent study, “launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal.”

The vaccine was developed at the NIH and Moderna Inc.—a biotech company out of Massachusetts. As the shots do not contain the coronavirus itself, participants have no chance of getting infected.

Another vaccine candidate that will be studied soon has been developed by biotech company—Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

There have now been approximately 180,000 cases of the virus throughout the world while about 78,000 people have made successful recoveries.