The first clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine began began Monday. The first person to enroll in the program, Jennifer Haller of Seattle, was injected.
“I hope that we get to a working vaccine quickly and that we can save lives and people can go back to life as soon as possible,” Haller told Time.
According to Forbes, the vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, was developed by Moderna with researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The trial will be conducted at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.
The first trial will test three different doses of the vaccine. Researchers hope to recruit 45 healthy adults for the initial phase. Participants will receive two injections of the vaccine 28 days apart and will be closely watched in order to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine.
Tal Zaks, the chief medical officer at Moderna, said in a press release Monday, the study will give doctors across the world more information on how the virus attacks the body.
“This study is the first step in the clinical development of an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, and we expect it to provide important information about safety and immunogenicity,” Zaks said.
The trial comes two months after Chinese authorities sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Researchers at the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH finished the vaccine on February 24.
The coronavirus outbreak has affected more than 204,200 people; the death toll has exceeded 8,200. Eighty percent of people experience mild symptoms, but 20% require hospitalization. Death rates across the world vary. The virus has affected every facet of daily life, including shopping.