More than 100,000 Americans already have signed up to participate in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, which one immunologist called "very encouraging."
According to USA Today, at least 120,000 people are needed to properly test the efficacy of vaccines as scientists race to develop an inoculation for the coronavirus pandemic. So far, 107,000 people have joined the effort.
"I would say it's very encouraging at this stage to have 107,000 volunteers," immunologist and vaccine expert Barry Bloom told USA Today. Bloom teaches public health at Harvard University.
Each of the four major clinical trials for the vaccine need at least 30,000 volunteers for the third phase of the testing process, which will launch in the fall. The National Institutes of Health kicked off an effort it calls the COVID-19 Prevention Network earlier this month, which aims to bring the four major vaccine efforts under one umbrella to help with, among other things, recruiting volunteers.
A handful of vaccine studies already has shown promise in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in China late last year and has since spread to every corner of the world.
As of Monday morning, 14.6 million people have been infected and more than 609,000 have died. In the U.S., close to 4 million people have gotten sick and more than 143,000 have died.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.