Medical experts are continuing to develop a vaccination against the 2019 novel coronavirus.

Currently no vaccine exists and Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf says there is a national effort called Operation Warp Speed, which is a federal program with five medical companies to speed up the development, production and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. She explains what a vaccine is and how it works.

“We’re not injecting toxins, or poisons or, anything that is harmful to your body, (and) we’re not injecting live viruses into your body. But what they do is they try to develop a vaccine that will stimulate your own immune system to produce antibodies specifically meant to fight off this coronavirus.”

Wolf notes the overall goal of Operation Warp Speed is to have 300 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine ready to be distributed by January of 2021. She adds, after the first wave of vaccines are ready, more vaccines will be produced.