I'm very confident something (more than one likely) will be in production and distribution by year end if not earlier. There has never in history been this much technology and money directed at a medical problem.
A coronavirus is a simple mechanism in the grand scheme of things, we've already mapped the genetics and chemistry of the thing... not hard at all with modern techniques to throw a custom-wrench into the gears, one way or another. Really the only things up in the air are safety and production scalability.
There are several vaccines which are already shown to behave in an acceptable manner, safety and efficacy. Side effects and antibody production are about what you'd expect and are in the ballpark with other vaccines in use. Timing of certification and deployment depends on urgency at this point, ie what's the risk tradeoff between early certification (under emergency authorization) vs the cost of a sustained on-going covid induced societal and economic train wreck.
It's true that biology is complex and you might get surprised but with about 200 candidates in the works the cumulative odds are very good. If you don't hear that from many experts, recall that bureaucrats have to pull their punches and CYA in public. Personally my planning assumptions are to get through the next year and then worry about economic recovery.
Moderna shared more good news today...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN24F2SW