So when the news broke this week that early results from the University of Queensland — labelled by some as the "Australian vaccine" — indicated its candidate was safe and "likely to provide protection" against COVID-19, there was elation — albeit accompanied by confusion.

First question: didn't we go all-in on a deal with Oxford?

The simple answer is no.

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"I think we need to make it very clear that we don't know which vaccine will turn out best," vaccine expert, clinical virologist and scientist Tony Cunningham told the ABC.

"It's always good to have multiple approaches, and we need multiple approaches because we're going to need a lot of vaccine.

"And maybe we'll need both [the Oxford candidate and the UQ candidate] in the future, and maybe other improved vaccines even after these ones, if they work.

"This is not going to be 'winner takes all'."

What's going on with the other vaccines?

According to the World Health Organization, there are 165 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development with 32 in human trials and eight in the more advanced phase 3 trials.

The UQ vaccine is in the early phase 1 clinical trial, which uses a small controlled group of people to see if it provokes an immune response. It successful, it will then move on to phase 2, which tests a few hundred people across different demographics

The Oxford vaccine is in a more advanced phase 3 trial, where as many as 30,000 people from various backgrounds and different parts of the world are administered the drug.

The Morrison Government's agreement with Oxford-AstraZeneca, described by the ABC's Dr Norman Swan as a "preliminary bet", is largely regarded as just that: taking a punt in an ultra-competitive world market that it will come off.

It has shown promise, with the first human trials producing an immune response, but experts say there is a long and arduous journey ahead.

Despite this, the vaccine has been turned into a political football.

The Financial Times reported this week that the Trump administration was considering fast-tracking the Oxford vaccine for use in the United States ahead of the November 3 presidential election, on the back of emergency approval following a future UK study of around 10,000 people.

Mr Morrison said he hoped the vaccine would be available in Australia early next year if it is deemed safe and effective.

The Federal Government has not yet signed a formal agreement with the UQ candidate.

However, it is understood that if the UQ vaccine was approved by the regulators after a phase 3 trial — which UQ predicts will come next year if it clears testing hurdles — then Australians will be first in line for its homegrown candidate.

UQ has signed a deal with Melbourne-based vaccine manufacturer CSL — the Federal Government's biosecurity partner and currently the most valuable publicly listed company in Australia — to produce the vaccine, if successful.

Vaccine manufacturing agreements are critical, as they need to be produced in the millions and billions and not all vaccine technology is the same.

CSL has not yet signed a formal deal to manufacturer the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine.

However, CSL has indicated it was "in discussions" with the group on "whether it is possible to provide local manufacturing support" at its Melbourne facility and was working through the technical details involved.

'It's just like Lego'

Experts say of the 165 vaccines in development, there are at least seven different core technologies being used.

But most share one common trait, according to Professor Cunningham.

"The most important protein we are focusing on is the spike on the outside, like little landmines you see in the cartoons," he said.

"It's that spike that the virus uses to attach to cells.

"The most obvious thing to do to block that from happening is to get the body to produce antibodies that bind to the tip of the spike to prevent it from binding to cells and therefore infecting cells: that's the principle of most of the vaccines being produced."

To describe the UQ vaccine, which is developed using an existing UQ technology called "molecular clamp", Professor Cunningham uses an analogy all of us can understand: Lego.

"So imagine [it] like Lego blocks: you've got to have three of them fitting together in order to produce a little dip at the top which the virus uses to bind to the cell, and the antibody will bind to that as well," he said.

"If those Lego blocks don't stay together, those three proteins don't stay together — they need to be clamped together. And that's what the UQ means by its 'molecular clamp' technology.

"It actually replaces the membrane of the virus — how the spikes all sit and keeps them together."

He said the Oxford candidate was creating a "whole new type of virus" through an adenovirus from chimps.

The virus was "inactivated", so it only goes one round around the body and stops, he said.

"But during that round of multiplication, it produces the spike protein.

"They used chimp adenovirus because we don't have immunity and it can go round in the body, but it's a virus that will cause us no problems.

"You're putting a bit of the coronavirus into it, and then the body responds. So in the case of the Oxford vaccine, the body is actually producing the vaccine itself; with the UQ one, you're injecting the bit of protein directly into a person."

In addition, he said, the body needed to introduce T cells, a type of white blood cells, as those T-cells last longer than antibodies.

"This helps immune memory," he said.

"If the antibodies drop off, you still have T-cell memory; if you meet the virus again, that T cell immune memory may help you very quickly generate the antibodies you need to repel it."

Professor Cunningham said despite all the updates and different technologies, there was one message to remember:

"As I've said many, many times, you never know until we are finished which one's going to win."