Coronavirus latest: Friday, May 22

CanSino Biologics, a Chinese vaccine company, announced on Friday that it saw strong, positive results from its phase one trials of a coronavirus vaccine, which it tested on 108 volunteers. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins The Final Round to break down the latest news about the coronavirus.

Video Transcript

JEN: So Anjalee, a real interesting week from your vantage point, of course. We started the week talking about Moderna, the vaccine. That lit a fire under this market. Where do we stand now heading into the week? And have there been any more incremental news stories, at least on the vaccine or treatment front, at all?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: There have been, Jen. And it's actually the one that everyone was kind of waiting for. So we talked earlier this week about how Moderna is ahead of the game in the US [INAUDIBLE] but by the US, including a Chinese company, [INAUDIBLE]. And that company-- the results of its phase-one trials were released in a medical journal. And it's the very first that we've seen of this sort of level of results.

Because going back to what the issue was, really, with Moderna and with all of the others that have come out, even on the treatment side, it has always been through the company. Or it's been through the trial results being immediately released. But none of it has been peer-reviewed. And that's something that we'll see come out soon.

So this puts China ahead of the game. And that is stirring a lot of concern when it comes to, what does nationalism have to do with vaccines? And how will that play out? Will China, in fact, be able to provide the supply necessary to other parts of the world? And if it does, what does that mean for the US, which it is currently in a battle with? And so that's something to see as a concern.

Also, we know that the FDA has different regulations than other parts of the world, including in China. And what does that mean for the safety? But we did see the results positive, actually. And that company has already engaged in a phase two of that trial.

So it's really interesting to watch. It seems like it was a vaccine week, really, and stirring a lot of that debate about, what does it mean? What does production mean?

And then on the Moderna front, we did hear a Dr. Fauci earlier today, on several media organizations, saying that the results from Moderna were positive, which was that underlying thing that we had talked about as well, Jen.

JEN: And Anjalee, this is a pretty basic question that I still haven't gotten my head around. How many vaccines will there be? When you go now to get the flu shot, I mean, I don't even know who made it. Or you take your kids to get a vaccine for something, you just-- I just thought there was one. I don't know. Are we going to end up in a world where there's multiple? And people will be saying, oh, I got this one, you're going to get that one?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Not to that degree that people would know. I think [INAUDIBLE] drawing that similarity to the flu is actually exactly what's going to happen. It's that we're going to get to the point where we won't know. But because it's such a huge demand and it's such an interesting time in the sense that there hasn't been this level of concern over vaccine development, really, in a very long time. And not to this scale, and not with this level of immediacy that's needed. And so that's where you are finding yourself paying attention and even knowing.

I mean, people who never would have known Moderna before now know the name, at least to some degree, as a relation to a vaccine. And so we're going to see more of that. I don't know that it would be to the degree that it would be a determining factor. But some things that people have paid attention to over the years when it comes to vaccine differences is what they're made out of.

So people who were vegans or vegetarians were concerned about the fact that vaccines are developed using eggs. And so that was a concern in how they end up choosing if they decided to pay more attention to that.

JEN: Anjalee Khemlani, thank you so much for all your work covering this this week. Have a great three-day weekend!