Don't Expect a COVID Vaccine before the Election

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October 16, 2020

Dear Reader, Next week NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will make a daring attempt to steal samples from the surface of an asteroid, dodging giant boulders and other hazards in the process. In election news, several leading scientists and institutions have become willing to take a political stance against President Donald Trump and his allies. And our main story today explains why a COVID-19 vaccine likely won't be available to the public until mid- to late 2021, despite the pressure drugmakers face to rush a shot to market by the end of year.

Medicine Don't Expect a COVID Vaccine before the Election A vaccine made by Pfizer could seek emergency approval by the third week of November, but it likely won't be available to the public until mid- to late 2021 By Charles Schmidt

Policy & Ethics Leading Scientists Urge Voters to Dump Trump Journals and Nobelists, usually cautious, cite unprecedented damage and incompetence in calls for a U.S. leadership change By Sara Reardon

Space NASA's OSIRIS-REx Seeks to Grab a Piece of Asteroid Bennu The spacecraft's first attempt to gather material from the space rock's surface could become the largest nonlunar sample return in history By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Policy & Ethics Supreme Court Nominee Barrett Resisted Climate Science, But Other Judges Have Embraced It Several law experts say it is important for judges to understand issues of science relevant to cases they are hearing By Jennifer Hijazi,E&E News

Math Melting Candy Gives Mathematicians Insight into How Some Landscapes Form Researchers dissolved a sugary treat underwater to understand the origin of spiky rock forests By Clara Moskowitz

Evolution Humans Make Wild Animals Less Wary From mammals to mollusks, animals living among humans lose their anti-predator behaviors. By Jason G. Goldman | 03:11

Public Health How Straight Talk Helped One State Control COVID Nirav Shah directs Maine's response, which is seeing impressive results despite risk factors By Ellen Ruppel Shell

Policy & Ethics When Scientists Become Political Dissenters Three cases across the world highlight the dangers of challenging the status quo By Ahmed Abbes,Michel Broué,Chandler Davis,Adrien Deloro,Ivar Ekeland,Michael Harris,Masha Vlasenko

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Digital & Full Archive For $69 per year, your Digital & Full Archive subscription includes 12 digital issues with full digital archive access back to 1845 and Android and iOS app access.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE The Risks of Rushing a COVID-19 Vaccine Telescoping testing time lines and approvals may expose all of us to unnecessary dangers By William A. Haseltine | June 2020

QUOTE OF THE DAY "We're talking about giving these vaccines to billions of people. You can't risk compromising public trust." Eric Topol, Cardiologist and Head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute

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