COVID-19: Searching for a Vaccine

May 1, 2020 – There are now more than one million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and more deaths in just two months than in the entire Vietnam conflict. Many experts agree developing a vaccine against the coronavirus is key to vanquishing it and fully reopening our society, but how long will it take and can it be scaled quickly? NMiF correspondent Megan Kamerick talks with researchers at the University of New Mexico who are among hundreds of scientists around the world working to develop a vaccine. 

Correspondent:
Megan Kamerick 

Guests: 
Steven Bradfute, Ph.D., assistant prof., UNM Center for Global Health and Internal Medicine 
Bryce Chackerian, Ph.D., professor and vice chair, UNM Dept. of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
David Peabody, Ph.D., UNM Dept. of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology  

Additional Resources
The COVID-19 Vaccine Development Landscape – Nature
Developing Covid-19 Vaccines at Pandemic Speed – New England Journal of Medicine
Coronavirus: How India Will Play a Major Role in a Covid-19 Vaccine – BBC
Unsolved Issues and Huge Investments in COVID Vaccine Manufacturing – ABC News
We Need a Vaccine to Vanquish COVID-19. Here’s How Scientists Are Trying to Find It – PBS Newshour
Scientists Try to Speed COVID-19 Vaccine Development – NPR
Vaccine for Alzheimer’s In the Works – New Mexico in Focus

This story is part of a collaboration with FRONTLINE, the PBS series, through its Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.