HJNO Nov/Dec 2020

22 NOV / DEC 2020  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS PLAN B HowWellWillCOVID-19VaccinesWork? What is “Plan B”? Lucio Miele, MD, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics, Assistant Dean for Translational Science, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center As of the time of this writing, COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV2, has been diagnosed in 33,802,841 humans, including 7,221,278 Americans. COVID-19 has killed over 1 million persons in nine months, of whom 206,665 were Americans. The U.S. death toll keeps rising by nearly 1000 a day. It’s clear by now that SARS-CoV2 isn’t going to disappear any time soon. In numerous countries and U.S. states where public safety measures have been eased, new cases and hospitalizations are rising again. Our hopes of returning to a pre-COVID-19 “normal” rest upon the development of safe, effective vaccines. Are COVID-19 vaccines in the near future a certainty? What if none of the currently ongoing vaccine clinical trials meets its safety or efficacy endpoints? What should we be looking for in vaccine clinical trial results? Guiding principles for vaccine development were set forth by NIH director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, and NIAID director Anthony Fauci, MD.