Originally Posted by rickair7777

There are now 200 vaccines in development, using all available vaccine technologies, including some cutting edge stuff. Several are far enough along in trials to show some initial good results on safety and efficacy.

Private and government money (billions) is being invested heavily. Government has to invest, but the private money doesn't so they must have reached an informed conclusion that the odds are at least somewhat in their favor.

There's no absolute guarantee, biology is complicated, but I think it's almost inevitable that we'll have a vaccine soon-ish. Only question is exactly when, how fast they can deploy it, and how effective it will be (it does not have to be 99% effective to establish herd immunity, that's something like 60-70% I believe).

It also may not be exactly like vaccines we're used to, but drawbacks which might be a show-stopper for a routine commercial vaccine would be tolerable in this case. Hypothetically, if it made you sick for a week it would be still be worth it for covid immunity. Or if you needed a booster shot every eight weeks, etc, etc. But at least a couple of the vaccines in trials sound pretty conventional, one of them may need a single booster after a month or two.