Pfizer's announcement that its vaccine appears to deliver strong protection against COVID-19 was hailed as great news in the stock market and beyond. But Donald Trump Jr. sees a political conspiracy at play, suggesting that the company held off on the news to hurt his father's reelection chances, reports the Daily Beast. "The timing of this is pretty amazing," he tweeted. "Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?" For the record, his father doesn't seem to share the sentiment. "STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON," the president tweeted when the news broke. "REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!" Pfizer exec Kathrin Jansen tells the New York Times that politics played no role in the timing, adding that she herself didn't learn of the results until Sunday.
"We have always said that science is driving how we conduct ourselves—no politics," she notes. Pfizer, she adds, didn't participate in the government's Operation Warp Speed project to expedite development of a vaccine, and it took no federal money for its program. Joe Biden, meanwhile, also celebrated the development, reports Fox News. He congratulated the "brilliant" researchers behind the apparent breakthrough, but he added that it's "important to understand that the end of the battle against COVID-19 is still months away." Pfizer is on track to seek FDA emergency approval to manufacture the drug later this month, meaning some Americans could be vaccinated by the end of the year. But it could be months before a vaccine is easily available to most Americans, Biden noted. (More Donald Trump Jr. stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
