--- title: "Volunteers Are Now Testing a Potential Coronavirus Vaccine" description: "Scientists are testing a potential coronavirus vaccine on volunteers at a research facility in Seattle, developed by Massachusetts biotech firm Moderna." date: "2020-03-17" modified: "2020-03-17" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/coronavirus-vaccine-seattle" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "health" - "vaccine" --- # Volunteers Are Now Testing a Potential Coronavirus Vaccine ![Over the course of six weeks, according to the press release, Jackson and her colleagues plan to enroll 45 adult volunteers to take doses of the potential vaccine.]() *\Image: Associated Press via TIME\* In what could be a major inflection point in the global coronavirus outbreak, scientists are now testing a potential vaccine on volunteers in Seattle. "This work is critical to national efforts to respond to the threat of this emerging virus," said Lisa Jackson, a senior investigator at a Kaiser Permanente research facility who's leading the trial, in a [press release](). Jackson and her colleagues plan to enroll 45 adult volunteers to take doses of the potential vaccine over the course of six weeks. Different volunteers will receive different doses of the vaccine, and the researchers will evaluate whether or not the doses are safe and whether they're effective at inducing an immune response. The first person to receive the vaccine, [according to the *Associated* *Press*](), was a 43-year-0ld Seattle mom named Jennifer Haller. https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1239858587201085441 "We all feel so helpless," Haller told the wire service. "This is an amazing opportunity for me to do something." Another Seattle volunteer who talked to the *AP* was Neal Browning, a 46-year-old Microsoft engineer. "Every parent wants their children to look up to them," he said. The potential vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, developed by Massachusetts biotech firm Moderna, is an exciting news break. But [experts warn]() that any one potential vaccine may well end up being a dead end, and that bringing any new vaccine to market, especially when millions or billions of doses are needed, could take months or even years. Still, the potential payoff for a vaccine that prevents the COVID-19 illness — in terms of impact to public health, the economy, and a pharma company's bottom line — is vast. China, for instance, [announced today]() that it has authorized its own clinical trials to test a separate vaccine. US President Donald Trump reported offered "large sums" to a German pharmaceutical company in exchange for bringing its promising research to his country — a move that [spurred backlash]() from Germany. Back in Seattle, though, the researchers say they're all in to find a way to prevent the spread of the virus. "We’re team coronavirus now," Jackson told the *AP*. “Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency.” ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()