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There's normally a very long, very complex procedure for testing new medicines and drugs here in the U.S. But right now, ain't nobody got time for that.
So here's some news we've been desperate to hear. The first human trials of a vaccine to prevent coronavirus started yesterday. A group of 45 healthy volunteers in Seattle will get the vaccine to see if it works.
This is just the first step, though. It's going to take months to know if this vaccine . . . or any of the dozens of other vaccines that are in development . . . will work.
The best estimates say it could take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine to become available to the public.
But this is an important first step . . . and a break from the normal protocol. Normally, a vaccine like this would be tested on animals first before humans . . . but, again, there's no time for that.
Dr. Lisa Jackson of Kaiser Permanente is leading the study. She says, quote, "Going from not even knowing that this virus was out there to have any vaccine" being tested in two months is unprecedented.