The big news story of the week is that German pharmaceutical company Pfizer, have managed to create a vaccine against Covid-19 which, their research claims, has over a 90% success rate in preventing the disease. While it may still be a few weeks, possibly months, until it's readily available to everyone, could this be the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/covid-19-vaccine-candidate-effective-pfizer-biontech

What are your thoughts on this? Will you accept the vaccine? Will life return to normal afterwards? or does it all sound too good to be true?

The final stage trials are still on-going, there are other promising vaccines out there too. As long as Covid 19 doesn't mutate in some way that renders the vaccines useless they may well be the way back to what used to be regarded as normal life. I put my faith in science so I'll happily have the jab(s) when available, may take some time though as this one has to be stored at -70 degrees centigrade (-94 F), so the logistics are a challenge.

Here in the UK at least the first batches will go to the over 80s and front line hospital staff, the second ones will go to over 75s and care home staff, and only after that will they start coming down the age ranges. Meanwhile once it is widely available I expect that airlines and holiday operators will fairly rapidly move to "no vaccine, no fly", so realistically anyone who refuses it will find their options for travel somewhat curtailed.

I agree.

It's going to be a bit of a long haul. We'll have to keep social distancing and wearing masks until well into the spring.

Those at risk of serious complications (over 65, respiratory problems, immune deficiencies) will have to be especially vigilant.

Given only a 90% effectiveness rate (and that may be optimistic) it's likely that each of us will require two differently formulated vaccines.

It's fantastic, creative, innovative-but-unproven science--they're using synthetic messenger RNA--and of course after it is properly tested I will happily take the vaccine. It may still be months or years away, however. Proper testing is complex and Pfizer's vaccine, indeed any vaccine, still has plenty of hurdles to clear before it's widely distributed, but I believe in the fundamental, proven science behind vaccines.

Check this out: https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/

Will life go back to normal? Not exactly...humanity will be forever changed by this event, and there's no saying that another virus/germ/bacteria/mutation won't be coming along right behind it. Even with a vaccine, it won't be like flipping a light switch. People will be circumspect to get on planes, stay in hotels, and share space the same way we did before. They'll also be more guarded against business/financial risk. Will sports fans stream back into stadiums when they all have 4K TV's at home, along with comfortable seating, no traffic, and reasonably-priced beer? Work from home has wrought deep changes to our workplaces, homes, and economies already. Have you seen the prices of commercial real estate? How many of your local restaurants have gone under? People will be risk-averse--they'll have to be if the global economy goes the way it seems to be going--and some industries, some ways of life, will just never quite be the same.

As an American, I'm saddened to see my country so deeply divided; when given an opportunity to galvanize as citizens, we splintered instead. We have some HEAVY matters splitting our country but we seem especially divided on Covid and institutional racism.

I'll oversimplify and conflate, because that's what we do nowadays. If you're in favor of social distancing and wearing a mask, you likely agree with the Black Lives Matter movement, vote Democratic, don't go to church, believe in science, support a woman's right to choose, and love and accept gay and trans people. These people will also very likely take the vaccine.

If you eschew mask-wearing and other precautions, you probably don't quite understand or outright hate BLM, vote Republican, go to church, aren't quite sold on evolution/science, oppose a woman's right to choose, and do not accept gay and trans people. These people, hopefully, also will take the vaccine, because NO MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE, we need people to come together on a global scale to defeat these types of biological threats. We can disagree about pretty much everything else, but we can't disagree that FACTS, EVIDENCE, and RESEARCH, also known as SCIENCE, is the best hope of having our old world back.

Unreasonable dissent and hesitation to take an effective vaccine will affect our ability to eradicate the virus, if we even can. Look at the resurgence of measles and polio; anti-vaccination misinformation costs lives, sometimes a shitload of them. Again, we actually need to be way more proactive on the little-tiny-microbes-that-could-kill-us-all front, but I'll be happy if in the next year we can test and distribute an effective vaccine just for Covid-19. It's obviously the most pressing need and deserves the most resources. However, we need to be prepared for something even worse. When people envision end-of-the-world scenarios, they tend to think on an epic Hollywood scale--climate change, nuclear war, robot uprising--but it's actually far more likely that the instrument of our doom is infinitesimal. Apocalypse is not a missile riding in the belly of a nuclear submarine; it's a cell riding a mosquito proboscis. We'll go not with a bang but with a wet cough.

I worry that we in the States are so divided as a country now that we won't be able to come together and fight this virus effectively. We certainly haven't so far! Patience and solidarity are paramount. I hope with better leadership, not just in the USA but worldwide, humanity and science can restore the world we loved and miss so much. I've lost NOTHING to Covid compared to some people who've lost their loved ones and livelihoods, but I do miss my friends and family and the simpler pleasures of the old days. I haven't hugged my mother in a year, and she might not have another year if we don't get serious about kicking this virus's ass by uniting in common purpose.

I'm not convinced a vaccine that has 90% chance has been produced in less than a year has been tested properly. Im not happy that it is being rolled out to elderly and vulnerable and probably dont have the capacity to refuse. As a care worker I'm not ready to receive a vaccine in such early stages either, I'm just not happy with the whole situation. Luckily I have been in a care home which has had no cases and that is credit to all the staff.
Still think about previously vaccines have caused deaths and medical negligence via medication even medical negligence in my own family I'm reluctant to be injected so soon

The difference is the common cold mutates very quickly and is very rarely lethal, C19 mutates very slowly (and thus a vaccine can be more easily produced), also it kills vulnerable people as well as flu.

I had C19 in February, it was a horrid 3 weeks. I would jump on the chance to take the vaccine as while I would survive C19 again, it's not about me, it's about protecting others around me (my parents, clients and patients in the hospital I work at).

All drugs have side effects, there are with vaccines but they are rarely bad and I'm not allergic to any of the current ingredients, but even if there were side effects, I would still take the vaccine to protect others around me that either can't take it or would die if the got C19.

Not true - the common cold is a rhinovirus rather than a coronavirus.

I hear what people are saying about the apprehension of the vaccine being rushed and I can understand the worries, given that most medication testing usually takes years. However, given the nature of this pandemic and it being so disruptive to our lives, the need for any kind of cure should be welcomed and the Pfizer vaccine has proven to have considerable success against the virus. So, given the circumstances, if the vaccine does become readily available worldwide, then we should accept it, as, right now, it's the only cure we have and the best chance we have of life returning to some kind of normality. And, who knows, maybe a more successful vaccine will come along in the future.

Nah, not just - of the seven coronaviruses that infect humans, four cause what we call the "common cold" and are responsible for 20-30% of cases thereof. (The other 70-80% will indeed be rhinovirus.) The fifth, sixth and seventh human coronaviruses are SARS, MERS and SARS 2 (covid) respectively. A vaccine has indeed never been developed for a human coronavirus, though there are vaccines for coronaviruses in animals.

To add to this we need to look at previous world Pandemics and there have been a few, with the Black Plague in the 15 century the Bubonic Plague 1700's, the Spanish Flu at the end of WW 1 (1918 - 21) and Ebola Plague in Africa (mainly west Africa). Then Meres and Sar's in Asia. The Spanish flu wiped out 1/3 of Australian WW 1 veterans whom were held up in Europe at the end of the war had to wait months to come home to Australia. Of whom some were carriers and brought it back with them causing it to spread here through the community. The state boarders were shut then as they are now still shut (3/20 - 11/20). This is based on the Colonial State lines. With COVID 19 the same for the Spanish flu and others there may be no real cure but a blocking agent (RNA and TNA) which reduces the chances of reinfection and infection from the virus. I believe Trump and other world leaders whom either have or had COVID had one of these as a real cure is still months if not years away. If the pharmaceuticals companies are right then this is what they have developed is a blocking agent, which is not a true cure, and reduces the infection rate. This is one reason every day people don't receive the treatment and these very few people do get treated, because simply the cost of the medication. In Australia some people whom, very few did receive this medications were used in medical test trails (total death toll to date 800+ in OZ). The UK stopped their trial simply because of the number of people whom has side effects from the medications. This is the right thing to do when a sample of people have reactions to medication(s). It is the every street person whom now misses out on some of these medications and not those with, health insurance, health care, pension cards, etc, or any form of ID. Everyone on this site has some form of ID even just an email address is ID. It is this very few which are the unseen will miss out.