As we wait for a vaccine, here’s a snapshot of potential COVID-19 treatments
Aggressive public health measures to stem the tidal wave of coronavirus infections have left people isolated, unemployed and wondering when it will all end. Life probably won’t go completely back to normal until vaccines against the virus are available, experts warn. Researchers are working hard on that front. At least six vaccines are currently being tested in people, says Esther Krofah, chief executive of the FasterCures center at the Milken Institute in Washington, D.C. “We expect about two dozen more to enter clinical trials by this summer and early fall. That is a huge number,” Krofah said at an April 17 briefing. Dozens more are in earlier stages of testing. In unpublished, preliminary results of a test of one vaccine, inoculated people made as many antibodies against the coronavirus as people who have recovered from COVID-19 (SN: 5/18/20). The mRNA-based vaccine induces human cells to make one of the virus’s proteins, which the immune system then builds antibodies to attack. That...