In my last post, I mentioned a COVID-19 vaccine may be in distribution before Biden’s Inauguration. With Pfizer’s announcement today, that’s all but certain. The importance of a 90% effective vaccine can’t be overstated. A market opening up well over 1000 points attests to its significance. For this octogenarian, this is akin to a prisoner getting the news he’ll likely get out of jail soon on new evidence.

The Pfizer news also jogged my memory. Wasn’t there some political noise over its vaccine and when it might be announced? A quick search of my saved documents brought up a letter to Pfizer’s CEO on Sept. 25. In the letter to Albert Bouria , 65 of the nation’s top academic health authorities told the CEO that Pfizer’s accelerated vaccine process and announcements were eroding public trust in ways that could ultimately cause enough people to refuse to take the drug, preventing the achievement of national herd immunity. Signing the letter were top leaders from U.S. medical schools. https://ldi.upenn.edu/news/five-ldi-senior-fellows-among-65-top-health-experts-letter-cautioning-pfizer-ceo-against The letter looked for a late November approval at the earliest. Of course, this would put it well after the election.