It has been several months since the coronavirus outbreak began. Since March, COVID-19 forced billions of people into quarantine for an indefinite amount of time. 

Developers around the world are working on creating a viable vaccine and began the five-step process of making vaccines legally approved globally. 

The first phase of the vaccine approval begins with organizations, such as the World Health Organization, being granted permission towards initiating safety training, which entails a trial where volunteers have the vaccine tested on them to ensure its functionality. 

The second phase allows the organizations to expand on the safety training and test up to hundreds of volunteers. 

The third phase grants permission to test on thousands of volunteers. This three-phase process, however, is not the end of approving a vaccine.

In the U.S., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research approves and regulates vaccines.If this center grants permission to initiate the limited stage of vaccine regulation, then the vaccine begins a two-step process towards becoming a fully regulated vaccine. 

After the conclusion of the limited phase, where only a certain amount of people are allowed access to the vaccine, it is released to the general public.

Some organizations that are in the early stages of producing a vaccine are Pfizer and BioNTech SE, who shared in late Aug. that they were entering the first stage of their vaccine. SARS-CoV-2 was also in evaluation to progress to the third phase, however, this was in Aug., so the vaccines have most likely begun the next stages towards approval. Some scientists believe that a vaccine will be in full production towards late 2020 to early 2021.

Although the vaccine could remove the risk of COVID-19, many people may refuse to take it due to the belief that vaccines could lead to negative side effects. 

The vaccine will bring about a global immunity and a steep decrease in COVID-19 cases worldwide. With this, the global safety regulations may likely come to an end.