A vaccine developed at Duke could help prevent future pandemics

Duke University researchers developed a vaccine tested in monkeys that could prevent future pandemics caused by coronaviruses similar to those that led to the COVID-19 pandemic and the SARS outbreak. “Now is the time to plan for the next coronavirus outbreak,” said Dr. Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. “We can control outbreaks and keep them from becoming pandemics in the future.” The journal Nature published the Duke research results on May 10. The work was funded in part with $15 million from the state’s 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, highlighted the research during a briefing last week. The vaccine protected against COVID-19, Fauci noted, and produced antibodies against three COVID-19 variants, the virus that caused the SARS outbreak, and coronaviruses found in bats. Fauci called the work “an extremely important proof of concept that we will be aggressively pursing as we...