This is Planet Money from NPR.

So, as you might have heard, we are in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak.

And this isn't the first one. There have been three bad ones in the past 18 years.

There was SARS. Remember that one? That was a coronavirus. It hit in 2003,

and it probably came from bats. And then there was MERS, which started in 2012,

and that came from camels. And now there is COVID-19.

That's the official name of this current coronavirus disease.

And that one probably also came from bats.

And once you know that these coronavirus aren't something that came out of nowhere,

that they've been around for years, the obvious question is, where's the vaccine?

That would be great. A vaccine would be great, right about now.

People would buy it. Yes, we would.

Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Sarah Guenzalis.

And I'm Amanda Aronshik. The free market is supposed to solve these kinds of problems,

provide the thing that everyone wants. But it hasn't.

Part of the reason is all of these coronavirus are a little different, this one's new,

so no matter what it is going to take time. But another reason is economics.

The market for emergency vaccines for pandemics, diseases that spread around the world,

it is not like the regular market for, you know, bikes and raspberries.

It is a lot weirder than that.

Today on the show, we find out just how weird.

The story involves the anthrax scare, and in undisclosed number of secret government chickens.

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