Pfizer Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine More Than 90% Effective in Early Trials

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the results were “extraordinary.”

Can COVID-19 be cured? We don’t know. But Pfizer has announced a vaccine that they say is 90 percent effective in preventing the virus, reports the Associated Press—a huge and timely announcement if there ever was one. 

Here’s more from the AP:

“We’re in a position potentially to be able to offer some hope,” Dr. Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, told The Associated Press. “We’re very encouraged.” 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top-infectious disease expert, said the results suggesting 90% effectiveness are “just extraordinary,” adding: “Not very many people expected it would be as high as that.”

This good news, Dr. Fauci reportedly said, is “going to have a major impact on everything we do with respect to COVID.”

If this development holds, Dr. Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization told the AP that it could “change the direction of this crisis.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, one of the most visible faces of the American effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, is clearly skeptical—especially when it comes to the outgoing presidential administration’s ability to do something with it. 

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America, Cuomo, a Democrat, said: “We can’t let this vaccination plan go forward the way that Trump and his administration is designing it.”

Cuomo believes that the current president’s implementation of a vaccine like Pfizer’s will be a disaster and hopes to wait until President-elect Joe Biden takes office, telling GMA that “You have two months, and you can’t let this vaccination go forward the way the Trump administration is designing it—because Biden can’t undo it two months later.”

As of the afternoon of Monday, November 9th, 236,547 Americans have died from contracting COVID-19. There have been 9,808,411 infections. 

Seems like it would be a great time for everyone to set aside their personal politics, figure out what will really get the pandemic under control, and distribute it worldwide. It is difficult to feel confident that will happen. 

So in the meantime, keep calm and mask up.