Secure the doses... American big pharma Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech (creative) have been working on four mRNA COVID vaccine candidates. Unlike OG vaccines (which use a weakened virus), mRNA ones teach cells to destroy the virus (hardcore). No mRNA vax has ever been approved for human use, but the US government is clearly optimistic:
Putting money on every horse... This big bet in the vaccine race is part of the Trump admin's Operation Warp Speed. Vaccines usually take 6-10 years from development to approval. Remember the Ebola outbreak of 2014? The vaccine was just approved in December. The US is investing in a "portfolio" of vaccines to up the odds that Americans will have at least one ASAP. Other big vax horses the US has funded:
There's the scientific challenge, then the ethical one... Once a company gets an approved vaccine, ethical considerations around profits and distribution come into play. AstraZeneca and J&J said they'll sell hundreds of millions of doses at price that just breaks even, aka not seeking a profit. On the other hand, Moderna explicitly said it's planning on profiting. Governments will feel obligated to distribute vaccines to their own citizens first if they're being manufactured domestically. That could mean poorer countries get it later.