Teams around the world are racing to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus in the hopes that a successful one will lead the charge in normalizing life. But there are likely to be failures along the way — that's just the nature of vaccine development, Richard Hatchett, the CEO of the Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, told Stat News. Still, Hatchett believes it's important to begin production of some potential vaccines before they're proven to work.
Hatchett said if the hope is to get vaccines out as quickly as possible while also minimizing health safety risks, "we're going to have to take an awful lot of financial risk." That includes "investing in manufacturing capacity for everything" and "even beginning full-scale manufacturing before we know if the vaccine even works." The comments echo those previously made by Bill Gates.
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