Here’s how we’ll know when a COVID-19 vaccine is ready
Health officials have set targets for how good and how safe a COVID-19 vaccine needs to be, but communicating that to the public can present challenges.
Private David Lewis was hiking with his platoon through the snow, despite feeling unwell from the flu. It was January 1976, and the 19-year-old Lewis was stationed in New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where about 230 other soldiers ultimately fell ill. But Lewis, who collapsed 13 miles into the training hike and succumbed soon afterward, was the only one to die. His passing sent the United States into panic mode.
The strain collected at Fort Dix appeared similar to the one behind the 1918 flu pandemic, and this connection made it big news. By the 1970s, high-risk groups were being urged to get flu shots—so the government immediately sought to tailor the vaccine against the Fort Dix strain, hoping
