Trump Could Get His Vaccine Before Election Day
Depending on your definition of the word, it’s technically possible that therapies from Eli Lilly and Regeneron could fit the bill.
President Trump is eager for a Covid-19 vaccine within weeks, not months.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
When we think of the word “vaccine,” we usually think of it in the singular, but there are really two types — active and passive. When it comes to Covid-19, the latter type may arrive quicker than you think.
Active vaccines are the kind we’re all familiar with — the shots we get to inoculate us against polio, flu, etc. — and these are the type that are being developed as a safeguard against coronavirus by drugmakers including AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. They work by pushing the immune system, without causing an infection, to create antibodies in response to a virus or bacteria, which then helps prepare the body to successfully fend off a potential future infection.
Most of these vaccine treatments are the subject of large and lengthy trials, with approvals seen as months, rather than weeks, away. On Wednesday, Moderna's CEO said the company won't be able to apply for authorization of its leading vaccine candidate until at least late November because of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s safety-data requirements, which are more rigorous for shots intended for large populations of healthy people. Passive vaccines, by contrast, are synthetic antibodies — an “immune system in a bottle” — that can be administered to both sick patients and those at risk from an infection to offer protection. It’s these therapies that have come into focus lately.