Coronavirus vaccine expectations might be getting unrealistic

Coronavirus vaccine development.
(Image credit: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)

Some experts think there's been a communication problem when it comes to potential coronavirus vaccines, which has led to unrealistic expectations among the general population, Stat News reports.

That doesn't mean they aren't hopeful, or even optimistic, that one of the many vaccines in development will prove effective. The confusion is more about how widely available doses will be, if and when one is in production. "I don't think we're communicating very well at all with the public, because I keep having to tell these people, you know, even if we had a vaccine that showed some evidence of protection by September, we are so far from having a vaccine in people's arms," said Michael Osterholm, the director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy.

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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.