JUPITER, Fla. — On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis released the state plan to prevent and slow the pace of the coronavirus.
While there’s no vaccine yet to prevent it, a prototype is being developed in Jupiter. Scripps researchers say if everything works out right it could take months.
”If everything works. It could be available in as little as six months,” said Dr. Michael Farzan, Scripps Research Immunology and Microbiology co-chair. “If I give you a vaccine, and I can see the components of your blood will stop replication of that virus, I know that’s a good virus.”
For weeks Dr. Farzan and other Scripps researchers have been running tests to develop a prototype for the coronavirus.
“The ability to make a conventional vaccine in a short period of time is unfortunately too limited,” said Dr. Farzan.
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To streamline the process they’re collecting public funds for a Cryo-Electron Microscope, a $6 million tool to visualize how a vaccine prototype would work.
“With that microscope, we can visualize how this interacts and we can visualize how antibodies interact with this protein so we can fine-tune a vaccine,” Farzan said.
Meanwhile, DeSantis said the bottom line goal of public health response for this virus is containment and to stop person-to-person transmission. Top officials say the Florida Department of Health has been working with the federal government since January.
“The protocols from CDC and DOA are in place with our health care providers they are constantly communicating with our hospitals with our health care practitioners,” said Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nunez.
An incident management team and website has also been established to investigate, confirm, contain and report any suspected cases. The State Surgeon General calls it an emerging situation: A respiratory virus with a fatality rate higher than the flu. While a vaccine is still being developed the State Surgeon General estimates 80 percent of people who contract the virus will only experience mild symptoms.
”The mortality rate is 2 percent versus the flu which is 0.1 percent,” said Dr. Scott A. Rivkees, Florida Surgeon General.
The highest complication rates are in the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.
“The difficulty is translating that insight into a product that can be useful to people,” added Dr. Farzan.
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