"In April, more than three months before any coronavirus vaccine would enter large clinical trials, the mayor of Friday Harbor, a picturesque island town in Washington State, invited a microbiologist friend to vaccinate him.
The exchange, between Mayor Farhad Ghatan and Johnny Stine, who runs North Coast Biologics, a Seattle biotech company, occurred on the mayor’s Facebook page, to the horror of several town residents following it.
Mr. Stine is far from the only scientist creating experimental coronavirus vaccines, which may be for themselves, family, friends and other interested parties. Dozens of scientists around the world have done it, with wildly varying methods, affiliations and claims.
The most impressively credentialed effort is the Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative, or RaDVaC, which boasts the famous Harvard geneticist George Church among its 23 listed collaborators. (The research, however, is not happening on Harvard’s campus.)
Among the most secretive projects is CoroNope, which refuses to name anyone involved.
Each D.I.Y. effort is motivated, at least in part, by the same idea: Exceptional times demand exceptional actions. If scientists have the skills and gumption to assemble a vaccine on their own, the logic goes, they should do it. Defenders say that as long as they are measured about their claims and transparent about their process, we could all benefit."
They do not have Veryga with gun to block such activities.
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