U of G’s Prof. Shayan Sharif and Prof. Evan Fraser have co-written an opinion column in the Toronto Star that explores developing and utilizing an effective COVID-19 vaccine.

Sharif is associate dean of research at the Ontario Veterinary College at U of G. Fraser is director of the Arrell Food Institute at U of G.

They ask in the column whether we would be able to declare victory over the disease and get on with our lives if a vaccine was produced. For that to happen, two “huge hurdles would need to be cleared,” Sharif and Fraser write.

One hurdle relates to the fact that vaccines typically protect people from the disease that they are inoculated against but may not actually prevent people from being infected by that virus.

The second major issue  to be confronted is how the vaccine is deployed. Unless a large majority of the world’s population is vaccinated, life won’t go back to resembling normal.