"COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March, 2020, when nearly 120,000 cases were reported in over 110 countries. By that time scientists were already working frantically to develop a vaccine to combat the disease. By the summer of 2020, COVID-19 cases had surpassed 20 million, and more than 735,000 people had died. The search for a COVID-19 vaccine was a race against time versus an insidious virus that knew no boundaries and left few people untouched"--.