A coronavirus vaccine could be available for nursing home residents by the end of this year, according to the nation’s top infectious diseases expert. 

It could be widely ready for deployment by as early as November as researchers across the world race to develop one, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a CNN interview Wednesday.

“I still think that we have a good chance, if all the things fall in the right place, that we might have a vaccine that would be deployable by the end of the year, by December and November,” Fauci said. 

He noted that researchers conducting vaccine trials and officials are proceeding at-risk, meaning that they’re taking the next steps before they have results of the previous step. That next step, for example, is making a vaccine before there’s a “clear cut signal that it works,” which shortens the overall process by months. 

Fauci also added that the accelerated method is not at the expense of safety or scientific integrity. 

“That means if it does work, you’ve gained a few months. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost an investment in resources. You haven’t put anyone at risk. You haven’t modified the integrity of the study,” Fauci explained. 

The pandemic has hit long-term care particularly hard. Of the 100,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States, fatalities at long-term care facilities account for about 40% of them.Earlier this month, President Trump indicated that nursing homes and seniors would receive top prioritization for a coronavirus vaccine once it’s released. He said the focus would be to provide a possible vaccine to those most-risk for suffering serious complications to the disease, and that the military would be mobilized to rapidly distribute it.