UNITED STATES – Pifzer is making a COVID-19 vaccine with a German medical partner BioNTech. The vaccine could be 90% effective based on early and incomplete test results. “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.” The two companies are on track to apply only for emergency use later this year from the U.S Food and Drug Administration. Even if everything will work out, the vaccine won’t be out before the end of this year. Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization’s senior adviser, said Pfizer’s vaccine could “fundamentally change the direction of this crisis” by March. President Trump tweeted during the presidential campaign;  “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”. President-Elect Biden, however, was still sceptical, telling people to still social distance and continue to wear masks

The new vaccines aren’t made with the virus itself but rather with genetic code that trains the immune system to recognize the spiked protein. Back to the politics side of all of this, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted after the election; “The timing of this is pretty amazing. Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?” Pfizer has said that this vaccine was not for politics but just,  “moving at the speed of science.”  The vaccine could also be just as effective as the flu shot. The effectiveness of it is still up in the air at this point.

(Compiled from The Associated Press for the Guilford Voyager by Hailey Skaggs, original reporting by Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson)