You Want Pfiz With That?

When Biden said it was a time to heal, he wasn’t kidding. There are still many unanswered questions about effectiveness, duration, and timing, but we’ve all been waiting for good vaccine news and we’ve finally got our Pfiz on the prize. Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is looking 90% effective. With hope on the horizon, it’s even more imperative that we wear masks and flatten the now exploding curve. Towards the end of the Vietnam War, John Kerry famously asked, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” With a vaccine possibly in sight, let’s work together so families aren’t asked to say goodbye to loved ones because of avoidable mistakes. Scientists are doing their part. Citizens must do theirs. (And because the virus spreads via airborne droplets, it’s vital that people know the P in Pfizer is silent.)

+ The more things change, the more they stay the same. Pence breaks silence to take credit for Pfizer vaccine – and drugs company immediately denies Trump involved. The truth is a couple clicks away. But the conspiracies are only one. So expect even this good news to further divide Americans.

+ Here’s the truth. The hopeful vaccine signs are the product of a global partnership between an American company and a German company called BioNTech. And that German company is led by a married couple, both children of Turkish immigrants, both obsessed. “Tuereci, the daughter of a Turkish physician who had migrated to Germany, said in a media interview that even on the day of their wedding, both made time for lab work.” And if this vaccine proves to work (and it’s still early, but hope is a good thing), this moment will be a key one in human history: “The BioNTech story took a twist when Sahin in January came across a scientific paper on a new coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan and it struck him how small the step was from anti-cancer mRNA drugs to mRNA-based viral vaccines.”

+ Hope, yes. Educated hope, yes: Stat: “Although it is a bright spot in the battle against the pandemic and a triumph for Pfizer and BioNTech, a German company, key information about the vaccine is not yet available. There is no information yet on whether the vaccine prevents severe cases, the type that can cause hospitalization and death. Nor is there any information yet on whether it prevents people from carrying the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, without symptoms. Because the vaccine has been studied for only a matter of months, it is impossible to say how long it will protect against infection with the virus.”

+ A lot of interesting tidbits about RNA vaccines from MIT Tech Review: “One drawback of RNA vaccines is that they need to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures, complicating their distribution. They are also cumbersome to manufacture. Pfizer said it would only have enough supply to vaccinate about 20 million people by the end of 2020. By the end of 2021, the company anticipates, there will be 1.3 billion doses—enough to vaccinate about 650 million people, considering each person gets two doses.”

+ Joe Biden: “We’re still facing a very dark winter. The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing.” Trump: “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”

+ Ben Carson is the latest attendee of the Trump election night gathering to test positive.

+ And finally, the Biden transition team unveils members of Covid-19 task force.

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