“We’re clearly not going to get there” with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines alone, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told Politico. “We’re going to need four or five different vaccines.”
That’s not impossible. A number of vaccine candidates, including one by Johnson & Johnson, are being tested. A shot by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has shown promise, but testing and communication issues has shaken confidence in the potential vaccine and slowed its path to approval. Having more safe, effective vaccines become available in the coming months will require a lot to go right, but the success of the vaccine race has already exceeded expectations.