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Editor’s Note: This is a preview of USA TODAY’s newsletter Staying Apart, Together, a guide to help us all cope with a world changed by coronavirus. If you would like it in your inbox on Tuesdays and Saturdays, subscribe here.
Hello friends, I hope you were all able to get some rest this weekend.
Last week was pretty stressful in the news, between the election and the winter COVID surge around the country (which unfortunately continues this week). While the weekend couldn’t magically erase stress and tension, I hope you were all able to get some sleep, spend some time outside, and take care of your mental health. Especially during some unseasonably warm weather here in Pennsylvania, I have been going for extra long walks with my dog, Apollo, and my father-in-law grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. Even barbecue can be self care.
As we prepare for what looks like a worrisome winter, let’s focus on a rare bit of good news in 2020 (more on that below), keep ourselves rested and be kind to one another. Especially as the holiday season brings disagreements and stress among friends and family, that’s something we all have to remember.
Today’s very good news
Technically this is yesterday’s news, but it’s so good who cares when we talk about it?
Yesterday pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its collaborator BioNTech announced early study results indicating that their vaccine prevented more than 90% of infections with the virus that causes COVID-19.
What does this all mean? Well it’s good news, and for that we can be happy (for once) this year. To get you all the details I spoke with USA TODAY health reporter Karen Weintraub, who has been diligently covering every vaccine development, about what this all really means.
As someone who has been covering the vaccine race for months, how excited are you personally by the Pfizer news?
Karen: Like many people, I was very pleasantly surprised by the news. Early in the outbreak, several people had told me that mRNA vaccines, like the ones Pfizer and Moderna are making, might not work well – or might only work well in healthy young people, and would be very hard to manufacture at large scale. Yesterday’s effectiveness news suggests that they CAN be very effective, and Pfizer’s promise to make 50 million doses this year and more than a billion next, indicates that manufacturing at scale won’t be a problem.
What does that 90% effective number mean? How effective is the annual flu vaccine or others we already use?
Karen: This figure is likely to change in the real world – vaccines are usually not as effective in practice as they are in studies, because people in trials tend to be healthier and don’t encounter the types of problems that can pop up in real-world situations. The annual flu vaccine varies in effectiveness from year to year, but is not as effective as this early data indicates a COVID vaccine might be.
What does the news mean in terms of a timeline for a vaccine distributed to the general public?
Karen: It looks like the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be approved by the end of this year or very early next year. The vaccine will be distributed first to healthcare workers and then to first responders and the frail elderly, followed by others at high risk. After that, it will distributed more broadly – so it’s unlikely that an otherwise healthy person will be able to get a shot before, say April, and widespread protection with adequate numbers of people getting vaccinated, before late summer. So, I’m hopeful that by next fall, we will be able to largely return to “normal.” Of course, that also assumes that people will want to get the vaccine, which is unclear at the moment.
In the meantime, we still have to practice safety measures, including masks, distancing and avoiding gatherings, right?
Karen: Right. Sadly, we won’t be able to safely throw away our masks, or hang out comfortably with family and friends for a long time. This is particularly depressing this time of year, with the holidays, but I try to take the long view and look forward to next year.
Thanks Karen for taking time off your very busy beat to talk to me! So let’s take this good news to heart, get excited for the future, but continue to wear mask, social distance and avoid gatherings. We can do this. I know we can.
Today’s reads
Today’s pet
We have a celebrity (sort of) gracing the newsletter today.
“This is Barbara Streisand,” says Dori Whitworth in Atlanta. “She is a mature lady and suffered a dislocated spine; so after surgery she walks with a charming shuffle in her gait. She is long suffering and my perfect constant companion.”
“Alas, she does not sing.”
It’s OK Babs, I’ll listen to “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in your honor.
