this would be something a little more controllable than what we have now. >> reporter: researchers at the university of nebraska medical center modelled a worst case scenario in the u.s. over the course of a year, 96 million cases of covid-19, 4.8 million hospitalizations, almost a half million deaths. scientists hope the measures the country is taking will keep the worst from happening, but the urgency of this moment has medical researchers all over the world racing to find some way to fight the killer virus. last month the national institutes of health tapped the nebraska medical center to launch the first clinical trial in the u.s. of an anti-viral drug, remdesavir to treat patients who have already contracted the virus. it's being tested against a placebo. >> it was studied in ebola

interestingly. it didn't work as well for ebola. however, there have been animal studies as well as studies in the lab that democrat nstrate at sars and mers. >> reporter: how does it work? >> when a virus tries to reproduce itself, it stops viral replication, so it stops reproduction of the virus. >> reporter: this clinical trial is up and running in the middle of this outbreak. >> i will say this is the fastest clinical trial that i've ever seen come to fruition in this amount of time. >> reporter: ordinarily how long would it take to g of the antiviral remdesivir, gil yard sciences in california, is ramping up production for multiple trials in the u.s., asia and europe. the u.s. army is also testing the drug. with no proven treatments, hundreds of trials of different drugs are underway worldwide.

researchers in the u.s. and china are investigating whether the common antimalarial drug chloroquin might inhibit the virus. they are testing a cocktail of antibodies to see if they can temporarily boost immune systems to fight the virus. us go through its n san diego is extensive library of existing drugs looking for antiviral compounds to send to labs around the world to test if any combination might prove effective in combatting the new coronavirus and quell the pandemic. >> i can't express to you the pressure i personally feel under. and i think the whole scientific community feels under. there's a great deal of responsibility in working towards a solution for this outbreak literally as it's

happening. >> reporter: scottish-born kate broad rick is senior vice president of research and development at anovio pharmaceuticals in san diego. employees are working against the clock to create a vaccine to prevent people from ever getting the virus. anovio is using dnaut ee ienchat has yet to produce a marketable vaccine. how optimistic are you that this is the solution? >> i feel very confident in the technology that we've developed here at anovio. and i feel very cautiously optimistic our vaccine will be effective when we tes it in the clinic. >> reporter: anovio has already started testing its vaccine on animals and is expected to start human trials next month. the company's race to create a vaccine was triggered by this, the genetic sequence of the

virus. chinese doctors posted it a few weeks. >> the ts and cs and gs that makeup the virus, we use a computer algorithm. we plugged in the sequence and after a few hours we had a fully designed vaccine on paper. after that the stages to manufacture it went into effect. >> reporter: three hours? >> absolutely. >> reporter: is that unusually fast? >> certainly if you're thinking of traditional vaccines. they take months to years. >> we'll have the rest of bill's coport in just two e mpetition and we broke through. you've tried retinol, but you have never tried one like this. olay's retinol24 complex hydrates visibly smoother brighter skin in just 24 hours. a skin upgrade? crushed it. new olay retinol24.

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dad? i didn't do it. #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. a small medical research firm says it took their computers just three hours to design a vaccine for the coronavirus. getting it to patients is another story. here's the rest of bill whitaker's report. >> reporter: using genetic code inovio scientists are able to zero in on the virus that spike and attach to human cells. that recreate that bit of coronavirus in the lab. the synthetic snippet of virus is grown inside bacteria. after sloshing around all night, there are thousands, if not millions of copies of the

synthetic dna filtered and processed, it looks like this. the vaccine is made from this liquid.t' injected into the >> we don't feel like we get to choose when an epidemic happens. we just get to decide how we're going to respond. what we're going to do is try our platform to bring forth a safe and effective vaccine. >> reporter: dr. steven hogue is president of moderna, a boston area biotechnology company also working on a vaccine. we met dr. hogue shortly after the cdc recommended social distancing. teaming up with the n.i.h. moderna started trials in seattle where the north america outbreak took hold. 45 healthy volunteers will receive injections over six weeks and be monitored for a year to see if the vaccine is

safe. moderna started work on the vaccine as soon as china posted the genetic virus sequence online. how long did it take you to go from getting this genetic information to actually having a vaccine ready for human trial? >> 25 days. it was released to the clinic d the world indoor record. but it's definitely faster than we think anybody's done before. >> reporter: moderna's process pushes the envelope of biotechnology. its scientists manipulate the genetic code to instruct cells what to do. in this case, trigger the body's immune system to fight the new coronavirus. >> once you realize that you can essentially put a software-like program into a cell, the opportunities to address human disease are pretty broad. >> reporter: how did your relatively small biotech get to be the first one to go into

human trials? >> some of that is the advantage of the technology we're using. it allows us to move incredibly quickly when we have a pandemic situation like the one we're in. >> reporter: you've never brought a vaccine to market using this technology isn't that >> we have not. >> reporter: you have not? >> we have not. >> reporter: they are collaborating with moderna to accelerate the coronavirus vaccine. they hope to start a second phase of human trials in a few months. >> the whole world is watching and waiting. if you find that this works, when will people be able to start getting vaccines? >> if we're able to show there is a clear benefit, we're going to need to be able to make sure that it's accessible to everybody who needs it. so we've actually already started the investment to scale up supply into the millions of doses. but ultimately what we really need to focus on is generating the clinical data that shows that the vaccine does, in fact, have a benefit, that it's safe and eve>> ts is turest f >> this is the purest form of

the dna. >> reporter: kate of inovio said they are accelerating the vaccine development. but it's no match for people's expectations. what is the realistic time line for this vaccine being administered to the public? >> we're hoping to have our vaccine tested in what we call a large phase two trial by the end of the year, which would be potentially hundreds if not thousands of subjects being treated. but to have it rolled out to the public is likely to take longer than that. >> reporter: so the best case scenario is more than a year? anyway to speed up that process? >> really, i have to say we're going as absolutely fast as we possibly can. >> reporter: with the number of people with the virus growing exponentially and deaths climbing inexorably, that time line just doesn't seem fast enough. with so much human suffering, hospitals in the u.s., europe and japan have given several

hundred desperate patients the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir for what is called compassionate use. that's the drug being studied in clinical trial at the university of nebraska medical center. >> we want to make sure that we're not giving drugs to people that could have side effects. >> reporter: now, i know you don't know who is getting the drug and who is getting the placebo. but from what you've observed of the patients who are in the trial, what have you seen? >> well, we have seen patients improve. >> reporter: you have? >> it's hard to tell if they would have gotten better on their own or if it was due to the drug. and that's the reason that we really need to study this drug in this fashion. >> reporter: director of the cdc dr. robert redfield told congress this month we should know in a matter of weeks whether remdesivir is effective. when a treatment a vaccine are

we end this half hour with some final thoughts from lee cowan of cbs sunday morning. >> reporter: no, the world is not ending. the big blue marble sure feels more fragile than ever. as we sit here, continents, countries, time zones and zip codes have all blurred into a single global community. what used to worry us now feels almost embarrassingly trivial. we cared more about likes on social media than our social responsibilities. we were concerned about streaming our movies, not the f of shelters. we to look aur more than one another. w wut even owing wh isn't it strange that we're all craving human connection now that we can't have that connection for a while?

the joy of breaking bread with friends or raising a glass at the bar, or kneeling together in worship has been replaced with empty chairs and empty pe those in their golden years, the ones who thought that they had seen everything, never thought they'd see the day where they couldn't visit with their kids nor their grand kids all because of reassuring hug may put them at risk. even the loved ones of those who have died can't come together in any great numbers to mourn. how do we quarantine tears? but in all of the separation, we are still connected at what our better angels are whispering. we have to truly go out of our way to be uncaring in these uncertain times. for once the road to kindness and compassion is actually the easier one. we can now see the plights of our neighbors, the bus driver or the cab driver, anyone who h

been forgotten. all views that perhaps used to be obscure from the hustle and bu human condition, this may be that moment. a test to see if love really does conquer all. so, no, the world is not ending. instead,>> something to think a. and that' that's the overnight for wednesday. for some of you, the news continues. for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news and, of course, "cbs this morning." reporting from the cbs studios in washington, d.c., i'm chip reid.

captioning sponsored by cbs ♪ breaking news overnight -- dire warning. the governor of new york tells the rest of the country this is your future. 50% of cases are in new york state, and it's growing. and an extraordinary plea today, the governor demanded to know where are the masks. where are the ventilators? >> you pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators. the economic crisis -- the president today said he's ready to send americans back to work in 19 days. >> i'd love to have it open by easter. >> but do public health experts think that's a good idea? [ bell ] the stock market soars. big gains on wall street today as congress completes the biggel