Go Army!

I have to say, I was a little excited to hear about the Army's progress in the COVID war:

Within weeks, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to announce that they have developed a vaccine that is effective against COVID-19 and all its variants, even Omicron, as well as previous SARS-origin viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide.

Who knew that the Army did vaccines?  Suddenly, we're all glad they do.

Of course, this is early in the process, no matter what the hyperbolic headlines would lead you to think.  As Kevin Drum notes, 

There are several caveats here. The first, obviously, is that the new vaccine has to undergo Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials before it can be approved for the general population. The second is that even if it works, we don't yet know how effective it is. And the third is that we don't know how long it lasts.  Ironically, testing is being delayed because so many people are already vaxed or have gotten COVID. 

So:  it's not fully tested; we don't know if it works; and we don't have any of those magic effectiveness percentages.  And it may take longer than usual to finish human testing since so many humans have vaccines in them already, and those that don't are not going to be good vaccine tests subjects.

But it's a start.  Go Army!