Pfizer launches human trials for coronavirus vaccine, aims for emergency use in September

Pfizer.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Pfizer, in partnership with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, became the latest company to launch human trials for a potential coronavirus vaccine Monday.

If all goes well, the companies hope their COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for emergency use in September, in time for what many predict will be a period of rejuvenated viral transmission (if it subsides at all in the U.S. between now and then). The normal caveats apply here — the quest for a vaccine is moving along at a pace never before seen, which means that some essential steps may be purposefully skipped in the process, and many experts believe that getting a vaccine in even 18 months, let alone later this year, is overly optimistic.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.