Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine: 11 Things You Need to Know
Kena Betancur/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Carl Zimmer and Katie Thomas
As coronavirus cases surge in the United States and elsewhere, with little relief in sight, the world got good news on Monday. Pfizer and its partner, the German company, BioNTech, announced preliminary results that suggested their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.
The news — the first results from any late-stage vaccine trial — buoyed stock markets and spirits as the public saw a glimmer of hope. But it’s worth noting that the news is still preliminary, and there is much that is still not known about how well the vaccine works.
And one thing remained clear: The vaccine will not come in time to rescue the world from the next several months, when the virus will take many more lives unless...