“You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity that resulted in China’s Yong-Zhen Zhang’s being temporarily forced out of his lab. In Massachusetts, the Moderna vaccine design took all of one weekend. It was completed before China had even acknowledged that the disease could be transmitted from human to human, more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States.” David Wallace-Wells in NY Mag: We Had the Vaccine the Whole Time. (We are living through a medical breakthrough of epic proportions…)

+ WaPo: Rochelle Walensky, Biden’s choice to run CDC is a respected specialist who is unafraid to speak her mind. The pick is earning near universal praise. And it will take a hell of an effort to fix what’s been broken.