With the COVID-19 pandemic reaching new heights in the US every day, vaccines and treatments are on everyone’s mind. After weeks of bad news about the pandemic, drug giant Pfizer, in partnership with German company BioNTech, broke some good news for the public. Their vaccine is said to be 90 percent effective, much more than anticipated. Dr. Anthony Fauci had previously said in testimonies to congress that a vaccine that was only 50-60 percent effective would be a very useful tool in controlling the pandemic. The trial consisted of 40,000 people and 90 percent of all reported cases of COVID-19 were from the placebo group.

Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, sold $5.6 million worth of stock that same day, after the company’s share price soared, raising questions about insider trading. Regardless, Dr. Fauci has touted the results saying, “The results are quite good. I mean extraordinary.” Pfizer plans to submit a request for emergency authorization from the FDA for their vaccine with the first doses potentially being delivered by December. One issue with widely distributing the vaccine to the American public and the rest of the World is that the vaccine must be stored at extremely cold temperature, nearly -70 degrees centigrade. Moderna is set to release their results within the coming weeks as well. Vaccines usually take years to develop but companies such as Pfizer have done what was previously thought of as impossible by developing one in just over 6 months. By doing so they will be saving millions of lives across the globe.