A lot of hype about the 90% success rate of the Pfizer vaccine, but it sounds like we are still a ways off of approval. Results weren't independently verified, the test was still at a small sample size (44k), and the people under trial haven't been tested long. Popular Science article “The results are really quite good, I mean extraordinary,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post. Other outside experts expressed similar cautious optimism. “We need to see the actual data, and we’re going to need longer-term results,” Jesse Goodman, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Georgetown University, told The New York Times. And I find it odd that testing is basically giving people the vaccine and then seeing who gets sick later. I'm not sure what I expected (maybe checking that their blood contains what is needed to fight off COVID?), but this just seems a little odd to me. Though admitting that I'm far from any biology expert. The results are based on a Phase 3 clinical trial which began back in July, enrolling nearly 44,000 people, with about half the cohort receiving the vaccine (in two doses, given over the course of a month) and the rest getting a placebo. The independent team of researchers who are responsible for reviewing the results are the only ones who know who got what. To evaluate the vaccine’s effectiveness, the researchers had to wait for enough people in the trial (in both the vaccine group and the placebo group) to catch COVID-19. This first analysis, announced today, is based on 94 participants who contracted the novel viral illness.