Scientists are working to develop a “pan-coronavirus” vaccine — one that offers protection against multiple variants of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
The hope is that such a vaccine could pave the way for the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine, which could head off any coronavirus — not only emerging variants that cause Covid-19, but also some common colds and even the menacing threat of novel coronaviruses we haven’t identified yet.
But such vaccines are “going to take years to develop,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House briefing on Wednesday.
Coronaviruses that infect humans were first identified in the mid-1960s, and there are seven known human coronaviruses: four that cause common colds; Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS; severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS; and SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
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