COVID-19 vaccine shows promise

Pfizer Inc. on Monday said early data on its coronavirus inoculation suggests it could be 90 percent effective, a result Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, called “just extraordinary.” The company could apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use approval later this month, though widespread rollout of any vaccine likely would not happen before early next year.

What do we know about this vaccine? It’s unusual for a company to release such early results, and Pfizer noted that the reported effectiveness could shift with more data. But Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, said no participant has become severely ill so far in a study that enrolled 44,000 people from the United States and five other countries. The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute reported that Pfizer did not use cell lines from aborted babies for development or production of its vaccine, though it did use some in confirmation tests.

Dig deeper: Read Katie Gaultney’s report about the volunteers pitching in to support vaccine development.