Another major step was taken Monday toward finding a vaccine for COVID-19.

A local TV news anchor in Georgia became the first patient to receive a dose of a coronavirus vaccine thats made it into phase three of human testing.

She is one of 30,000 Americans volunteering for the trial by biotechnology company Moderna.

Dr. Sandra Kesh, of Westmed Medical Group, says it's a new approach. The vaccine is one of more than 150 coronavirus vaccines being developed worldwide - 25 of them are now in human trials.

"It's a vaccine that uses genetic material from the coronavirus," she says. "It is very likely that we are going to have a very good candidate. I think the main question is how effective is the vaccine and what is our goal with the vaccine."

The infectious disease specialist at Westmed Medical Group says to make the final cut with the FDA, a coronavirus vaccine will need to be at least 50 to 75% effective to help develop herd immunity.

"That is the level where you don't have person-to-person transmission happening the way it's happening in some parts of the country," she says.

More than 4 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, with nearly 149,000 deaths.

The U.S. government is aggressively searching for a vaccine, which may be ready for the masses in early 2021.

A big challenge is whether people will get it.

"People are scared and when something is new, they called it Operation Warp Speed, so their knee-jerk is to think, 'Oh God, what sort of vaccine is this if its being developed this quickly?'" says Kesh,

Dr. Kesh says people shouldn't worry. She says she's confident whichever vaccine is approved, it will be thoroughly tested and safe.

The CEO of Moderna says they have already ramped up manufacturing their vaccine. If approved, they expect to deliver 500 million doses next year.