An effective vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall of 2021, according to experts

New Delhi: An effective vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall of 2021, according to experts working in the field of vaccine development.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada carried out a survey of 28 experts working in vaccinology in late June 2020.

Covid-19 vaccine

"Experts in our survey offered forecasts on vaccine development that were generally less optimistic than the timeline of early 2021 offered by US public officials," Jonathan Kimmelman, a professor at McGill University, said in a statement.

"In general they seem to believe that a publicly available vaccine next summer is the best-case scenario with the possibility that it may take until 2022," said Kimmelman.

Covid-19 vaccine

Many experts also believe that there may be some false starts before an effective vaccine is available.

The study also showed that about one-third of those surveyed believe that vaccine development is likely to face two main setbacks.