Why Even Presidential Pressure Might Not Get More Vaccine to Market Faster
Even invoking the widely heralded Defense Production Act to pressure drugmakers wouldn’t overcome vast obstacles.
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Even invoking the widely heralded Defense Production Act to pressure drugmakers wouldn’t overcome vast obstacles.
How two effective vaccines on the market make it so much harder to quickly test any competing vaccines.
Some years from now, infants and school-aged children will probably be the mainstay of a universal vaccination program against COVID-19 in the United States. But first, doctors want to be sure that newfangled vaccines won’t harm them.
Drugmakers will walk away with massive profits, but much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money.
The drugmaker says its mRNA vaccine worked in 90% of patients in its trial, but some observers question how long immunity will last and who will benefit.
The AstraZeneca trial is on hold in the U.S. as scientists try to unravel whether a rare neurological condition is linked to the vaccine. But regulators are frustrated by a lack of information from the drugmaker.
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center serves patients who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus: They are essential workers, have chronic diseases and are members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. When the safety-net hospital kicks off enrollment for its COVID-19 vaccine trial Wednesday, it will look to those patients to participate.
Polio terrified Americans, and in 1955, when Jonas Salk’s vaccine became available, they snapped it up like candy. Sixty-five years later, COVID is the latest dread virus, but many undercurrents could inhibit its acceptance.
The FDA must approve any coronavirus vaccine before it’s widely distributed, but political pressure could cloud the decision.
Trials are an immense undertaking involving tens of thousands of participants. They’re likely to start this summer — but don’t expect quick results. And what’s a successful result, anyway?
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