Monday evening.

In lieu of yet another recitation of mind-bogglingly boring daily minutiae, I’ll jump straight to the good stuff. Earlier today, Moderna announced that its covid vaccine is 94.5% effective. (As opposed to Pfizer’s 92% efficiency.) On top of that, it doesn’t need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures like the Pfizer vaccine: a regular freezer would suffice.

This is great news for everyone, and the only way anyone can beat that is if they announce a one-shot vaccine, one that I believe Johnson&Johnson is working on. (Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are of the two-shot variety, to be taken several weeks apart.) Russia has yet to release a statement saying that actually, their vaccine’s efficiency is even better than 94.5%. Heh.

Fridays are usually when folks dump the political news they want to get little attention in the media. Looks like Mondays will be designated for covid-related announcements. If there’s a new glimmer of hope every single week, that’ll go a long way. There are quite a few other vaccine candidates that are probably eager to release their own preliminary data. At some point (hopefully this month), either Pfizer or Moderna will get an emergency approval from the FDA. At some point in December, there’ll be a lot of publicity when the first medical personnel and folks over 85 start getting their vaccinations.

And at the risk of sounding like a stereotypical finance guy – ye gods, this is great news for the stock market. My portfolio of covid-related stocks went up by 6% today, reaching the sort of number I never would’ve imagined when I was just a little bit younger. My future is tied to the vaccine rollout in more than one way, eh.

Stay safe out there, friends – this is almost over.