Great News!

Last week, Pfizer reported 90 percent effectiveness for their vaccine. This week, Moderna reported preliminary data on another successful vaccine that offers hope. Both use a synthetic version of coronavirus genetic material. This genetic material are messenger RNA or mRNA. They program a person’s cells to produce copies of the virus which alarms the immune system into fighting the the real virus.

10 other companies are also conducting safety trials in a global race to produce a vaccine. in Australia, Britain, China, India and Russia are leading the way. More than 50 other candidates are in different stages of testing.

We still need masks and social distancing because manufacturing and distributing billions of doses will take several months. The pandemic has infected more than 55 million people worldwide. COVID-19 killed more than 1.2 million.

The Biden Administration will buy the vaccines and give them to the public free of charge.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Health. Trump has refused to let his coronavirus task force communicate with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, said Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Trump keeps threatening to fire him. He said in an interview:

“I had been saying I would be satisfied with a 75 percent effective vaccine. Aspirationally, you would like to see 90, 95 percent, but I wasn’t expecting it. I thought we’d be good, but 94.5 percent is very impressive.”

The F.D.A. may provide emergency authorization to begin vaccinating the public. The companies must provide evidence of effectiveness and two months of safety data. More than 1,000 Americans are dying of the coronavirus every day on average. This is a 50 percent increase in the past month. The U.S. may exceed 2,200 people dying from the coronavirus every day. Here’s the latest map and case count.