Vaccine Takes Time to Develop and May Not Give Long Term Immunity

Those hoping for a quick end to COVID-19 restrictions must be realistic, given that the development of a vaccine will take time, said Minister Lawrence Wong. In an interview with Money FM 89.3 yesterday, he said that despite the challenges, the good news is that there is a "massive global effort" to develop a vaccine. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research has partnered Japanese pharmaceutical company Chugai Pharmabody Research to develop an antibody that targets specific areas of the coronavirus, preventing it from infecting cells. Others, such as Duke-NUS Medical School, together with American biotechnology company Arcturus Therapeutics, are working on a vaccine that gets the human body to produce part of the virus in order to fight it.