Those eagerly awaiting a COVID-19 vaccine will need to wait a little longer, with experts saying we will need to be lured in by the false hope of at least 12 million more sensationalist articles promising a vaccine, before a vaccination actually hits the market.“We have some very promising preliminary results that suggest we could have a vaccine by as early as September” is just one of the articles you will click on in your desperation for this to be over.
But others are not so optimistic. “We’ve moved to the human testing phase and could feasibly have a vaccine in market before Christmas,” is another more cautious but still false article that will get your hopes up.
Industry expert Terrance McClullen advised people to be realistic, saying 12-18 million articles was at the lower end of what could be expected. “Realistically we might need to wait for 24 or even 36 million articles about a minute development in vaccination research that has been blown out of proportion to make it sound like a vaccination is around the corner, before one is actually developed”.
Scientist Robert Dwellon said he was optimistic about the chance of the article about his research getting read. “’We should have a vaccination ready to go next month,”’ is the type of headline that makes me feel like we could really get some traction with this,” he said.
