As the number of deaths due to COVID-19 continues to climb, the world is eagerly waiting for a vaccine.

A leading pandemic adviser to the UK government has suggested that a vaccine against the coronavirus will be available in 2020 and 2021.

"In the last seven months since I have been involved, the progress is absolutely staggering and there are now first-generation vaccines," Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of health research charity Wellcome Trust, told the BBC's HARDtalk program. "There’s probably five or six of them - from the US, from Europe, from China, from Russia - that are becoming available."

Despite the optimism, he also urged caution, saying the first generation of vaccines wouldn't solve everything.

Meanwhile, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said at a news briefing that there was "no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be".

Mr. Tedros advised people around the world to comply with measures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing, saying: "Do it all."

"A number of vaccines are now in phase 3 clinical trials, and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection," he said. "However, there is no silver bullet at the moment, and there might never be. For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control: testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts."

So it looks like our safety still depends a lot on our own efforts. And memes, of course.