COVID-19 update: The latest in the scientific race to develop an effective vaccine

With the global pandemic still in full swing, scientists are working to develop a vaccine in record time. While everyone wants an effective vaccine, they don’t all agree on how to get there and what “effective” really means. Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, spoke with researchers, doctors and business leaders to shed light on some of the challenges vaccine developers are facing. 

As of mid-July, the World Health Organization reported that over 160 vaccine programs were in progress, an unprecedented effort toward a common goal, writes Associate Editor Ryan Cross. Although traditional vaccines are made with weakened or killed virus, many modern vaccines use part of the virus itself to teach immune cells what to home in on. For SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that part is the spike protein, which the virus uses to attach itself to human cells. Both types of methods can be time-consuming, and traditional approaches are potentially dangerous because companies need to grow large amounts of virus. This has caused some scientists to turn to experimental gene-based vaccines. Researchers put the genetic code for the spike protein into harmless viruses that act as vessels, or simply use DNA or RNA to deliver the genetic information to human cells. Human cells would use these instructions to make the spike protein, which would trigger an immune response. These types of vaccines are very fast for scientists to design and make, but the technology is largely unproven, and it remains to be seen whether these kinds of vaccines are effective. Furthermore, there are many different modifications that scientists can make to the spike protein, which could change how our immune systems respond to the real virus. 

Vaccine makers are focusing on the ability of candidates to produce high levels of neutralizing antibodies that would prevent the virus from entering cells. But this area of vaccine research also faces challenges. For example, the methods for quantifying the antibody response in the laboratory are not ideal. In addition, it’s unclear just how much neutralization is good enough and for how long the effect would last. If antibody levels aren’t high enough, a person might only be left with partial immunity, which could prevent severe symptoms but still leave them with the ability to infect others. And what works in one person might not work well in another. Questions about safety still loom, and experts warn that moving too fast with an unsafe vaccine could shake public confidence. In the end, vaccine developers note that no single company can do this alone, and several types of vaccines will likely be needed.

The article, “What Will it Take to Make an Effective Vaccine for COVID-19?” is freely available here.

SCI TECH DAILY

Update by Worldometers

Reported Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 213 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances. The day is reset after midnight GMT+0. The list of countries and territories and their continental regional classification is based on the United Nations Geoscheme. Sources are provided under “Latest Updates”. Learn more about Worldometer’s COVID-19 data

#	Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths	Total Recovered	Active Cases	Serious, Critical	Tot Cases/ 1M pop	Deaths/ 1M pop	Total Tests	Tests/ 1M pop	Population
	World	16,285,353	+96,150	649,848	+2,274	9,961,162	5,674,343	66,242	2,089	83.4
1	USA	4,327,706	+11,997	149,490	+92	2,061,879	2,116,337	18,984	13,069	451	53,374,084	161,185	331,134,610
2	Brazil	2,396,434		86,496		1,617,480	692,458	8,318	11,269	407	4,911,063	23,093	212,661,228
3	India	1,424,202	+38,708	32,656	+560	910,298	481,248	8,944	1,031	24	16,291,331	11,798	1,380,900,513
4	Russia	812,485	+5,765	13,269	+77	600,250	198,966	2,300	5,567	91	26,902,291	184,339	145,938,879
5	South Africa	434,200		6,655		263,054	164,491	539	7,315	112	2,730,812	46,007	59,357,051
6	Mexico	385,036	+6,751	43,374	+729	247,178	94,484	3,922	2,984	336	911,853	7,067	129,021,774
7	Peru	379,884		18,030		263,130	98,724	1,402	11,511	546	2,206,105	66,849	33,001,256
8	Chile	343,592		9,020		316,169	18,403	1,636	17,964	472	1,504,844	78,676	19,127,140
9	Spain	319,501		28,432		N/A	N/A	617	6,833	608	6,320,836	135,188	46,756,057
10	UK	298,681		45,738		N/A	N/A	104	4,398	674	14,568,733	214,529	67,910,360
11	Iran	291,172	+2,333	15,700	+216	253,213	22,259	3,695	3,464	187	2,327,850	27,692	84,062,376
12	Pakistan	273,113	+1,226	5,822	+35	237,434	29,857	1,267	1,235	26	1,868,180	8,447	221,154,992
13	Saudi Arabia	266,941	+1,968	2,733	+30	220,323	43,885	2,120	7,660	78	3,056,956	87,722	34,848,130
14	Italy	245,864		35,102		198,320	12,442	41	4,067	581	6,520,046	107,849	60,455,471
15	Colombia	240,795		8,269		119,667	112,859	1,493	4,729	162	1,379,043	27,083	50,918,491
16	Turkey	225,173		5,596		208,477	11,100	1,252	2,668	66	4,532,672	53,706	84,398,593
17	Bangladesh	223,453	+2,275	2,928	+54	123,882	96,643	1	1,356	18	1,111,558	6,745	164,797,647
18	Germany	206,363	+31	9,202		190,600	6,561	237	2,462	110	7,418,812	88,527	83,802,499
19	France	180,528		30,192		80,815	69,521	410	2,765	462	2,982,302	45,682	65,283,584
20	Argentina	158,334		2,893		68,022	87,419	955	3,501	64	623,893	13,796	45,223,300
21	Canada	113,556		8,885		99,115	5,556	2,224	3,007	235	3,761,927	99,616	37,764,184
22	Iraq	110,032	+2,459	4,362	+78	75,217	30,453	433	2,732	108	912,698	22,661	40,276,360
23	Qatar	109,305	+269	165	+1	106,024	3,116	89	38,929	59	472,442	168,260	2,807,805
24	Indonesia	98,778	+1,492	4,781	+67	56,655	37,342		361	17	1,381,699	5,048	273,713,592
25	Egypt	91,583		4,558		32,903	54,122	41	894	44	135,000	1,318	102,453,147
26	China	83,830	+46	4,634		78,908	288	6	58	3	90,410,000	62,814	1,439,323,776
27	Kazakhstan	81,720	+1,494	585		51,823	29,312	221	4,349	31	1,894,815	100,835	18,791,305
28	Philippines	80,448	+2,036	1,932	+35	26,110	52,406	351	734	18	1,299,456	11,848	109,674,895
29	Ecuador	80,036		5,507		34,544	39,985	278	4,532	312	224,197	12,695	17,660,035
30	Sweden	78,997		5,697		N/A	N/A	50	7,819	564	751,213	74,352	10,103,535
31	Oman	76,005	+1,147	384	+13	55,299	20,322	167	14,862	75	296,989	58,072	5,114,175
32	Bolivia	68,281	+1,825	2,535	+62	20,951	44,795	71	5,844	217	147,173	12,597	11,683,237
33	Belarus	67,132	+130	534	+4	60,425	6,173	89	7,105	57	1,251,359	132,432	9,449,102
34	Belgium	65,727	+528	9,821	+4	17,425	38,481	45	5,669	847	1,514,046	130,599	11,593,089
35	Ukraine	64,849	+920	1,605	+15	35,807	27,437	91	1,483	37	937,006	21,435	43,714,427
36	Kuwait	63,773	+464	433	+4	54,373	8,967	123	14,919	101	479,411	112,154	4,274,587
37	Dominican Republic	62,908	+2,012	1,063	+8	28,603	33,242	267	5,795	98	235,289	21,675	10,855,084
38	Israel	61,388	+710	464	+7	26,959	33,965	329	6,674	50	1,597,269	173,662	9,197,590
39	UAE	58,913	+351	344	+1	52,182	6,387		5,952	35	4,828,066	487,774	9,898,162
40	Panama	58,864		1,275		33,428	24,161	158	13,629	295	203,600	47,140	4,319,053
41	Netherlands	52,732		6,139		N/A	N/A	16	3,077	358	851,885	49,709	17,137,516
42	Singapore	50,369	+481	27		45,521	4,821		8,605	5	1,170,049	199,891	5,853,425
43	Portugal	50,164	+209	1,717	+1	35,217	13,230	48	4,921	168	1,528,600	149,943	10,194,564
44	Romania	44,798	+1,120	2,187	+22	25,643	16,968	351	2,330	114	1,102,901	57,358	19,228,208
45	Guatemala	44,492		1,699		31,045	11,748	5	2,481	95	138,850	7,741	17,936,018
46	Poland	43,065	+443	1,671	+7	32,753	8,641	61	1,138	44	2,095,222	55,365	37,843,655
47	Nigeria	39,977		856		16,948	22,173	7	194	4	259,516	1,257	206,438,279
48	Bahrain	38,747		140	+3	35,205	3,402	51	22,729	82	780,081	457,601	1,704,719
49	Honduras	38,438	+879	1,098	+37	4,713	32,627	51	3,877	111	95,574	9,640	9,914,535
50	Armenia	37,317	+321	705	+5	26,478	10,134	10	12,592	238	157,152	53,027	2,963,630
51	Afghanistan	36,157	+121	1,259	+11	25,180	9,718	31	928	32	86,907	2,229	38,980,632
52	Switzerland	34,412	+110	1,977		30,700	1,735	20	3,974	228	758,836	87,637	8,658,880
53	Kyrgyzstan	32,813	+689	1,277	+28	20,388	11,148	24	5,024	196	267,718	40,992	6,530,946
54	Ghana	32,437	+586	161		28,927	3,349	8	1,043	5	369,180	11,866	31,112,174
55	Azerbaijan	30,050	+417	417	+9	22,684	6,949	66	2,962	41	667,819	65,826	10,145,250
56	Japan	28,786		993		21,567	6,226	64	228	8	704,400	5,571	126,448,497
57	Algeria	26,764		1,146		18,076	7,542	66	610	26			43,900,083
58	Ireland	25,869		1,764		23,364	741	5	5,235	357	600,342	121,492	4,941,393
59	Serbia	23,730	+467	534	+8	14,047	9,149	169	2,717	61	621,714	71,177	8,734,813
60	Moldova	23,034	+206	735	+3	15,909	6,390	362	5,711	182	128,076	31,755	4,033,289
61	Austria	20,472	+134	712		18,209	1,551	15	2,272	79	847,898	94,107	9,009,896
62	Uzbekistan	20,226	+274	114	+3	10,831	9,281	138	604	3	1,377,915	41,132	33,500,117
63	Morocco	19,645		305		16,282	3,058	31	532	8	1,126,213	30,488	36,939,019
64	Nepal	18,613	+130	45		13,128	5,440		638	2	647,484	22,197	29,169,282
65	Cameroon	16,708		385		14,539	1,784	30	628	14	145,000	5,454	26,584,456
66	Kenya	16,643		278		7,574	8,791	44	309	5	261,027	4,848	53,842,237
67	Ivory Coast	15,494		94		9,880	5,520		587	4	93,659	3,545	26,416,469
68	Czechia	15,212		369		9,590	5,253	22	1,420	34	656,888	61,332	10,710,370
69	Venezuela	14,929		138		8,795	5,996	20	525	5	1,491,737	52,470	28,430,130
70	El Salvador	14,630	+409	400	+10	7,648	6,582	486	2,255	62	226,718	34,942	6,488,443
71	Costa Rica	14,600		98		3,640	10,862	51	2,864	19	74,375	14,591	5,097,206
72	Australia	14,403	+453	155	+10	9,019	5,229	46	564	6	3,932,866	154,114	25,519,167
73	S. Korea	14,150	+58	298		12,890	962	15	276	6	1,522,926	29,703	51,272,290
74	Denmark	13,438		613		12,340	485	3	2,319	106	1,411,757	243,675	5,793,612
75	Ethiopia	13,248		209		5,966	7,073	66	115	2	372,812	3,238	115,130,088
76	Sudan	11,385		717		5,890	4,778		259	16	401	9	43,909,879
77	Palestine	10,469	+163	75		3,752	6,642		2,049	15	155,355	30,411	5,108,442
78	Bulgaria	10,312		338		5,306	4,668	33	1,485	49	235,792	33,953	6,944,559
79	North Macedonia	10,086	+152	460		5,427	4,199	55	4,841	221	95,169	45,680	2,083,368
80	Bosnia and Herzegovina	9,767		280		4,555	4,932		2,978	85	128,933	39,317	3,279,315
81	Senegal	9,681	+129	191	+4	6,409	3,081	49	577	11	101,678	6,063	16,769,360
82	Madagascar	9,295	+429	85	+7	5,579	3,631	89	335	3	37,921	1,367	27,732,292
83	Norway	9,111		255		8,674	182	1	1,680	47	420,528	77,530	5,424,083
84	Malaysia	8,897	+13	124	+1	8,600	173	2	275	4	937,645	28,946	32,392,776
85	DRC	8,831	+30	204		5,510	3,117		98	2			89,712,507
86	Finland	7,393	+5	329		6,920	144		1,334	59	339,225	61,217	5,541,323
87	French Guiana	7,332		41		5,767	1,524	25	24,511	137	36,205	121,034	299,130
88	Haiti	7,297	+37	157	+1	4,365	2,775		639	14	16,649	1,459	11,411,547
89	Tajikistan	7,192	+42	59		5,970	1,163		753	6			9,550,428
90	Gabon	6,984		49		4,463	2,472	11	3,133	22	67,767	30,405	2,228,837
91	Guinea	6,927		42		6,098	787	24	527	3	14,407	1,095	13,153,183
92	Luxembourg	6,189		112		4,647	1,430	3	9,877	179	394,582	629,701	626,618
93	Mauritania	6,151		156		4,299	1,696	3	1,321	34	57,253	12,295	4,656,707
94	Djibouti	5,039		58		4,949	32		5,095	59	55,726	56,351	988,915
95	Croatia	4,857	+65	136	+3	3,866	855	9	1,184	33	110,514	26,932	4,103,402
96	Albania	4,637		134		2,637	1,866	17	1,611	47	33,669	11,700	2,877,573
97	CAR	4,598		59		1,506	3,033	2	951	12	29,202	6,040	4,834,996
98	Hungary	4,435	+11	596		3,329	510	6	459	62	319,854	33,116	9,658,585
99	Zambia	4,328		139		1,953	2,236	18	235	8	76,072	4,131	18,413,183
100	Paraguay	4,328		40		2,679	1,609	12	606	6	115,906	16,237	7,138,218
101	Greece	4,166		201		1,374	2,591	10	400	19	440,156	42,244	10,419,334
102	Lebanon	3,582		47		1,671	1,864	31	525	7	254,024	37,229	6,823,217
103	Malawi	3,557		94		1,585	1,878	4	186	5	26,602	1,389	19,158,578
104	Nicaragua	3,439		108		2,492	839		519	16			6,629,679
105	Thailand	3,291	+9	58		3,109	124	1	47	0.8	685,316	9,817	69,812,168
106	Maldives	3,252		15		2,498	739	12	6,010	28	70,845	130,919	541,136
107	Somalia	3,178		93		1,521	1,564	2	200	6			15,918,419
108	Equatorial Guinea	3,071		51		842	2,178		2,185	36	16,000	11,384	1,405,482
109	Congo	3,038		51		756	2,231		550	9			5,526,039
110	Mayotte	2,862		38		2,650	174	3	10,476	139	13,000	47,584	273,202
111	Sri Lanka	2,777	+7	11		2,106	660	1	130	0.5	143,673	6,708	21,419,425
112	Montenegro	2,747		43		664	2,040	7	4,374	68	32,527	51,789	628,072
113	Hong Kong	2,634	+128	18		1,495	1,121	40	351	2	524,969	69,986	7,501,050
114	Libya	2,547		58		510	1,979		370	8	47,038	6,840	6,877,289
115	Mali	2,510	+7	123		1,911	476		124	6	21,143	1,042	20,283,699
116	Cuba	2,495	+17	87		2,349	59	1	220	8	244,020	21,545	11,326,125
117	Zimbabwe	2,434		34		518	1,882		164	2	118,276	7,950	14,876,706
118	South Sudan	2,258		45		1,175	1,038		202	4	12,044	1,075	11,202,270
119	Cabo Verde	2,258		22		1,363	873		4,058	40	41,634	74,830	556,383
120	Slovakia	2,179	+38	28		1,577	574	2	399	5	253,475	46,425	5,459,829
121	Eswatini	2,142		28		940	1,174	5	1,845	24	20,784	17,903	1,160,954
122	Slovenia	2,082	+16	116		1,678	288	2	1,001	56	127,040	61,108	2,078,958
123	Estonia	2,034	+1	69		1,922	43	1	1,533	52	116,913	88,130	1,326,598
124	Lithuania	2,008	+7	80		1,616	312	6	738	29	502,690	184,856	2,719,357
125	Guinea-Bissau	1,954		26		803	1,125	5	992	13	1,500	761	1,970,748
126	Iceland	1,847	+4	10		1,823	14		5,410	29	120,734	353,651	341,393
127	Namibia	1,775	+88	8	+1	75	1,692	13	698	3	21,806	8,572	2,543,754
128	Benin	1,770	+76	35	+1	1,036	699	1	146	3	80,527	6,632	12,141,530
129	Sierra Leone	1,768		66		1,297	405		221	8			7,986,840
130	Rwanda	1,752		5		907	840		135	0.4	238,007	18,349	12,970,988
131	Yemen	1,674		474		780	420		56	16	120	4	29,865,309
132	Mozambique	1,616		11		543	1,062		52	0.4	51,444	1,643	31,305,140
133	New Zealand	1,556		22		1,513	21		311	4	455,677	91,097	5,002,100
134	Tunisia	1,443		50		1,133	260	3	122	4	89,318	7,552	11,826,749
135	Suriname	1,381		23		853	505	7	2,353	39	1,244	2,119	586,981
136	Latvia	1,219	+13	31		1,045	143	2	647	16	191,070	101,384	1,884,615
137	Uruguay	1,174		34		947	193	3	338	10	101,060	29,086	3,474,562
138	Jordan	1,168	+14	11		1,041	116	3	114	1	558,451	54,697	10,209,819
139	Liberia	1,162	+7	72	+1	641	449		229	14			5,064,710
140	Georgia	1,131	+14	16		920	195	5	284	4	201,519	50,524	3,988,618
141	Niger	1,124		69		1,025	30		46	3	9,052	373	24,252,528
142	Uganda	1,103		2	+1	982	119		24	0.04	256,040	5,588	45,820,261
143	Burkina Faso	1,086		53		920	113		52	3			20,935,989
144	Cyprus	1,053		19		852	182		872	16	193,712	160,364	1,207,950
145	Angola	916		39		242	635	15	28	1	10,000	304	32,922,623
146	Chad	915		75		810	30		56	5			16,452,449
147	Andorra	897		52		803	42		11,608	673	3,750	48,529	77,274
148	Sao Tome and Principe	862		14		662	186		3,929	64	2,756	12,561	219,410
149	Togo	853		17		587	249	2	103	2	40,389	4,872	8,290,203
150	Jamaica	837	+6	10		711	116		283	3	35,417	11,957	2,962,055
151	Diamond Princess	712		13		651	48	4
152	Malta	700	+14	9		665	26		1,585	20	120,145	272,052	441,625
153	San Marino	699		42		657	0		20,598	1,238	5,729	168,818	33,936
154	Botswana	686		1		52	633	1	291	0.4	62,296	26,458	2,354,516
155	Réunion	657		3		558	96	4	733	3	35,419	39,542	895,742
156	Syria	650	+23	38	+2	200	412		37	2			17,525,621
157	Channel Islands	584		47		533	4		3,357	270	30,721	176,589	173,969
158	Tanzania	509		21		183	305	7	9	0.4			59,830,376
159	Lesotho	505	+86	12	+3	128	365		236	6	7,463	3,482	2,143,387
160	Taiwan	458		7		440	11		19	0.3	80,499	3,380	23,819,790
161	Vietnam	420	+3			365	55		4		275,000	2,824	97,396,784
162	Burundi	361		1		279	81		30	0.08	13,105	1,100	11,910,554
163	Guyana	360		20		180	160	4	458	25	4,188	5,323	786,812
164	Comoros	354		7		328	19		407	8			870,717
165	Myanmar	349	+1	6		288	55		6	0.1	107,928	1,983	54,434,449
166	Mauritius	344		10		332	2		270	8	205,285	161,398	1,271,916
167	Isle of Man	336		24		312	0		3,950	282	7,829	92,037	85,064
168	Bahamas	326		11		91	224	1	828	28	3,935	10,000	393,493
169	Mongolia	288				218	70	9	88		33,128	10,095	3,281,612
170	Gambia	277		6		60	211		114	2	4,515	1,865	2,420,519
171	Martinique	269		15		98	156	4	717	40	12,227	32,584	375,244
172	Eritrea	263				189	74		74				3,549,565
173	Cambodia	225				143	82	1	13		58,499	3,496	16,733,787
174	Faeroe Islands	214	+22			188	26	2	4,378		33,149	678,227	48,876
175	Guadeloupe	203		14		176	13	3	507	35	15,235	38,075	400,129
176	Cayman Islands	203		1		202	0		3,086	15	28,904	439,458	65,772
177	Gibraltar	185				180	5		5,491		19,594	581,597	33,690
178	Bermuda	153		9		139	5	1	2,457	145	18,320	294,245	62,261
179	Trinidad and Tobago	147		8		128	11		105	6	6,500	4,644	1,399,802
180	Brunei	141		3		138	0		322	7	37,058	84,654	437,756
181	Aruba	119		3		102	14		1,114	28	9,415	88,158	106,797
182	Monaco	116		4		104	8		2,955	102	38,209	973,205	39,261
183	Seychelles	114				39	75		1,159				98,388
184	Barbados	108		7		94	7		376	24	10,140	35,282	287,400
185	Turks and Caicos	97	+5	2		35	60	1	2,503	52	1,103	28,464	38,751
186	Sint Maarten	93		15		63	15		2,167	350	612	14,263	42,908
187	Bhutan	93	+1			85	8		120		41,428	53,652	772,164
188	Liechtenstein	86		1		81	4		2,255	26	900	23,600	38,136
189	Antigua and Barbuda	82		3		60	19	1	837	31	1,189	12,135	97,983
190	Papua New Guinea	62	+23			11	51		7		10,000	1,116	8,957,444
191	French Polynesia	62				60	2		221		4,649	16,543	281,018
192	St. Vincent Grenadines	52				39	13		469		1,834	16,528	110,964
193	Saint Martin	49		3		41	5	1	1,266	78	1,080	27,902	38,707
194	Belize	48		2		26	20		121	5	3,166	7,953	398,075
195	Macao	46				46	0		71		4,071	6,264	649,903
196	Curaçao	29		1		24	4		177	6	1,080	6,580	164,139
197	Fiji	27				18	9		30		4,000	4,460	896,882
198	Saint Lucia	24				22	2		131		2,934	15,973	183,685
199	Timor-Leste	24				24	0		18		1,568	1,188	1,319,988
200	Grenada	23				23	0		204		5,465	48,552	112,559
201	New Caledonia	22				22	0		77		10,119	35,421	285,680
202	Laos	20				19	1		3		25,501	3,502	7,282,288
203	Dominica	18				18	0		250		1,005	13,959	71,998
204	Saint Kitts and Nevis	17				15	2		319		948	17,812	53,224
205	Falkland Islands	13				13	0		3,729		1,816	520,941	3,486
206	Greenland	13				13	0		229		5,666	99,794	56,777
207	Montserrat	12		1		10	1		2,404	200	61	12,220	4,992
208	Vatican City	12				12	0		14,981				801
209	Caribbean Netherlands	11				7	4		419		424	16,159	26,239
210	Western Sahara	10		1		8	1		17	2			598,199
211	MS Zaandam	9		2			7
212	British Virgin Islands	8		1		7	0		265	33	439	14,515	30,245
213	St. Barth	7				6	1		709		1,246	126,126	9,879
214	Saint Pierre Miquelon	4				1	3		691				5,792
215	Anguilla	3				3	0		200		380	25,313	15,012
	Total:	16,285,353	+96,150	649,848	+2,274	9,961,162	5,674,343	66,242	2,089.3	83.4