Thanks to the hard work of scientists all over the world, we may have a coronavirus vaccine, or several, by next year. In the midst of their development, and well before their arrival, lawmakers are demagoguing about what those therapies will cost.

In a recent Senate hearing, some lawmakers proposed letting the government set the price of any eventual coronavirus vaccine, ostensibly to ensure that it’s affordable. That would be a colossal mistake. Imposing price controls would destroy a research process that has produced promising coronavirus vaccine candidates with unprecedented speed.