With all due respect...you are both slightly right here. If you read the history of science, it does indeed involve people thinking up new ideas. The whole idea of the first vaccine came about because someone considered another possibility. Before the first vaccine, they didn't exist.
Even what I have read about this newest vaccine has required someone to consider something that didn't previously exist. Most prior vaccines protect people from bacterial infections. Developing vaccines against viral infections is much more challenging, because of how often they mutate. Several of the new vaccines involve techniques that have not been previously used when creating other vaccines. Again, they required new thinking.
From what I have read about this vaccine, it was shown to be 90% effective, but to date, they are still evaluating how long (after the 2nd dose) that protection lasts. The 90% rate was based on an assessment that occurred a mere 1 week after the second dose was given. From Pfizer's own website,
"Pfizer and BioNTech are continuing to accumulate safety data and currently estimate that a median of two months of safety data following the second (and final) dose of the vaccine candidate – the amount of safety data specified by the FDA in its guidance for potential Emergency Use Authorization – will be available by the third week of November. Additionally, participants will continue to be monitored for long-term protection and safety for an additional two years after their second dose."
Simply, there is a reason Pfizer is going to continue to monitor test participants for a period of 2 years, and can't move ahead until they have at least a few more weeks of data. I say this as someone who just posted in another thread, that we should all make sure we are up to date on our vaccines. I think that is the least we an do for our health care workers this year. That said, I recently updated my own vaccines, 3 in one day, and phew! The 3 all at once through my body for a loop!
Bad vaccine reactions are a possibility, especially when adjuvants and preservatives are added. To suggest otherwise is dangerous. We don't have to resort to wild conspiracy theories. This information is posted right on the WHO and CDC websites. Pregnant women are NOT supposed to get certain vaccines! It is absolutely too soon to know if this new vaccine is safe for pregnant women. DTaP causes fever (1/4 of population), redness/swelling (1/4 of population). Up to 1 in 30 children get swelling of the entire leg/arm that lasts up to a week following the DTaP vaccine. Potential side effects include: seizures, non-stop crying for 3 hours or more, and high fever (over 105°F) after DTaP vaccination. "Very rarely" long-term seizures, coma, lowered consciousness, or permanent brain damage may happen after DTaP vaccination. As with any medicine, there is a very remote chance of a vaccine causing a severe allergic reaction, other serious injury, or death."
This is not random stuff I'm making up, this information that comes directly from the CDC. There is even a HHS website/hotline we are supposed to contact to report adverse vaccine reactions. It happens.
And this is Pfizer. Pfizer set the record for the largest health care fraud settlement and the largest criminal fine of any kind back in 2009 (Bextra). The settlement was for $2.3 billion dollars. Pfizer is the maker of Prempro ($1 billion in breast cancer lawsuits), Chantix ($288 million), Rezulin ($60 million), Bextra/Celebrex ( company set aside $894 million to settle lawsuits in 2008) As recent as 1996, Pfizer conducted an unapproved trial on children in Nigeria. Eleven children died, and Pfizer suit was settled in 2011 for $75 million to the state of Kano, plus another undisclosed additional sum in 2011. In 2014, the company settled $45 million in bribery charges. The company has a number of citations/settlements for dumping chemicals in various US waterways. ($3.1million in 1991, $1.5 million in 1994, $625,000 in 1998. $975,000 in 2008, ....)
This is also the company that makes the drug that is in the Epi-pen. The price went from $57 in 2007 to $500 in 2016. There was also an effort to stop selling single epi-pens, instead only selling them in two-packs. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, the Epi-pen was misclassified/lowballed on Medicare - to the tune of 1.27 billion of our money, ending in a settlement of $465 million.
So, um, while this is good news, I'm going to be cautiously optimistic for the time being.
To answer OP's question, yes, this good news has me cautiously dreaming of a return to normal.
