The Good News:

Pfizer’s Vaccine Offers Strong Protection After First Dose
The Food and Drug Administration’s first analysis of the clinical trial data also found that the coronavirus vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer’s race, weight or age.
By Noah Weiland and Carl Zimmer
Dec. 8, 2020 Updated 10:17 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group.

The finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials, which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from Pfizer. Last month, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their two-dose vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 percent after two doses administered three weeks apart. The new analyses show that the protection starts kicking in far earlier.

What’s more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer’s race, weight or age. While the trial did not find any serious adverse events caused by the vaccine, many participants did experience aches, fevers and other side effects.

“This is what an A+ report card looks like for a vaccine,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

The Bad News:

US 'shouldn't have closed the door' to more Pfizer Covid vaccine doses this past summer, official says
By Jim Acosta, Sara Murray and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
Updated 1:43 PM ET, Tue December 8, 2020

(CNN) — It was a mistake for the Trump administration not to leave the door open to purchase more Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses earlier this summer, an administration official told CNN on Monday.

The admission comes even as the White House has denied they turned down an offer to procure more vaccine doses earlier this year and ahead of President Donald Trump's executive order signing aimed at prioritizing the shipment of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans before other nations.

The official added that the US simply may have to hope that the other vaccines being produced by other companies are just as effective as the Pfizer doses.

"They shouldn't have closed the door," the official said, adding that "they could have left the door open" to purchasing more doses.

If the other vaccines being manufactured by Pfizer's rivals are not as effective, it could have a detrimental effect on inoculating the American public, the official said.

"It's going to look bad," the official added.