Where We Are Now: Nov. 16, 2020
Help Build a Bridge to Our Future
4:39 AM PST
Team –
We are close to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year. One without material exchanges. One with friends and family. This one will be different!
We were scheduled to BBQ a bird and celebrate with extended family at our home – fourteen of us. Honestly, our future is more important than missing a Thanksgiving, so we have decided to raise a glass of champagne together on my deck at 1 PM and then our extended family will return to their respective homes for a quieter Thanksgiving meal.
As I have said before, the loss of certain liberties during COVID make us realize how lucky we had it.
This Thanksgiving please help build our bridge to the future! Be responsible, be safe and wear a mask.
Last week brought amazing news. News about our election process, the POTUS, a vaccine and Operation Warp Speed. If you have not seen the 60 Minutes segment, A Shot in The Arm, I really encourage you to watch in now.
After watching Four-Star General Gustave Perna articulate the US Military’s role in the massive vaccine distribution undertaking, I awoke Monday morning to Pfizer’s announcement of a 90 percent success rate on their COVID vaccine. I did some research on the pre-approval, preliminary results. A few observations:
- Vaccine developed by Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, from Germany.
- Clinical trial includes 44,000 people. 94 contracted the COVID virus. The trial will continue until 164 cases are confirmed (could not find what makes this the magic number).
- Preliminary results suggest the vaccine is 90 percent effective.
- By contrast, influenza [Flu] vaccines are 40 to 60 percent effective and two doses of the measles vaccine are 97 percent effective.
- Pfizer’s CEO comments that, if approved, vaccines for 15 to 20 million people (two doses each) will be in the market by year-end and they will be ramping up to 1.3 billion doses a year.
- Pfizer received a $2 billion purchase order from the US government for 100 million doses of the vaccine. Pfizer does not get paid until the vaccine is approved and delivered. They are properly motivated!
With up to ten (10) other vaccines in late stage clinical trials and our US Military poised for logistical greatness, we simply need to bridge the gap to the vaccine’s impact.
So please, wear a mask! Enjoy Thanksgiving. Wish for normalcy in 2021.
Help build a bridge of safety from here to the vaccine!
This is Where We Are Now.
Thanks!
Mark
Mark A McLaughlin