The next few months will be an important time for researchers who are developing vaccines to protect against the novel coronavirus. But health experts warn that people should not get their hopes up too high for such a vaccine any time soon. About 15 COVID-19 vaccine studies are taking place worldwide. Vaccines train the body to recognize and fight off invading germs. Yet scientists do not know just how strong of an immune response is needed to protect people. Nor do they know the best way to develop a vaccine against the virus. Currently, only China is developing “inactivated” vaccines, ones made by growing the new coronavirus and killing it. Inactivated vaccines, considered to be somewhat old-fashioned, are dependable but require high-security laboratories to produce. Polio shots and some influenza vaccines are made in this way. Most other possible vaccines target not the whole germ but a major piece of it, the “spike” protein. This protein is on the surface of the coronavirus and helps it invade human cells.