Yes, but: First-generation vaccines often aren’t the ones that stop a new virus in its tracks, and experts’ hopes for an initial coronavirus vaccine are much more modest.

“Right now, we just need something that’s going to mitigate the damage this virus causes,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious-diseases expert at Johns Hopkins University. “Maybe it doesn’t prevent you from getting infected, but it prevents you from getting hospitalized, or prevents you from dying … that would be huge.”…

Vaccinating enough people to get safely back to our old, communal habits will also pose more practical challenges.

Even with a jump start on manufacturing, which is happening now, there won’t be enough supply, at least at first, to address the sheer scale of a global pandemic. So we need some kind of system to distribute the global supply, and then to prioritize who in the U.S. gets our doses.

And if distrust in a vaccine stops large numbers of people from getting it, then the U.S, may not achieve the “herd immunity” that prevents widespread outbreaks.