WASHINGTON: Coronavirus vaccines are expected to be available by 2021-2022 season when the novel disease can reemerge, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx told reporters.
"We know we will have vaccines most likely by the 2021-22 season and we are going to hopefully have therapeutics in the fall of the next season," Birx said at a daily White House briefing on Monday.
She added that the scientists see the possibility of the disease striking in three consecutive annual cycles.
Forecasts suggesting that 70 percent of the humanity may be infected are based on the assumption that the virus is allowed to spread unhindered, Birx explained.
According to the Johns Hopkins University tally, there are globally over 378,000 confirmed coronavirus cases which killed almost 16,500 people.