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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently hinted to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce that she believes it will be necessary to keep the entire state of Michigan under a state of emergency until a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely distributed and in use, a period that experts say could take an unspecified number of years.

Whitmer’s comments to the chamber members came during her remarks at a chamber event.

“I do think that until there are approved vaccines that are safe that can be mass manufactured and distributed, we’re going to have to continue to be smart, follow the science and take precautions,” Whitmer said, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential. “I would like to tell you precisely where I think we are. Are we 50% of the way? Are we 33? Are we 70? I can’t put a number on it because a lot of it depends on how quickly this vaccine creation happens and distribution.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer | stock photo

But it may be years before there is even a single vaccine brought to market, let alone multiple vaccines that are mass distributed, according to experts cited by Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said in an August press conference that it typically takes 10 to 15 years before a vaccine can both be developed and be approved through all four phases of trials. 

“We are all hoping for a safe and effective vaccine that will protect us from COVID-19 and allow our communities to get back to some sense of normalcy,” Khaldun said, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Hoover Institution researchers David Henderson and Charles Hooper, a pharmaceutical company consultant and president of Objective Insights, recently weighed in with an opinion piece published by the Goodman Institute, stating a slightly more optimistic best-case scenario.

“The fastest vaccine development in history was four years for Merck’s MumpsVax in the 1960s,” Michigan Capitol Confidential quoted from their opinion piece. “Even if a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 could be developed in half that time, we are still looking at the summer of 2022 before the vaccine would be developed, approved, manufactured and distributed for widespread use.”