COVID-19 Outbreak is Only Making Matters Worse

  For the first time since July the United States surpassed 64,000 new COVID-19 cases in a matter of two days. Accompanying this resurgence of COVID cases, is the roadblocks to creating a vaccine. There have been several pharmaceutical companies report that they are either halting their testing or that they have not made enough progress for a vaccine to be produced soon. Whereas, President Tump and his administration have repeatedly said that a vaccine is coming "momentarily". Scientists have also refuted his claims that a vaccine will be coming soon. Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer has been working tirelessly to create a vaccine and they reported Friday that they would not be able to produce a vaccine prior to the election. Now the major aspect of any vaccine in America is whether or not the vaccine meets FDA guidelines and can be approved; approval is the problem that Pfizer is struggling with currently. Pfizer chief executive, Albert Bourla expressed his understanding that the company could possibly have enough information to determine their vaccine's effectiveness this month, but they would not be able to meet the safety follow-up required for FDA approval. In order for FDA approval to happen the vaccine would have to have enough Phase 3 clinical trials to show the FDA of it is in fact safe. 

This new outbreak in cases is a less than ideal situation for the US government as it prepares for the presidential election in just a little over two weeks from now. Even with the strong push for untraditional voting methods people are still going to vote in person, which began on September 9th. This year there is a sizable amount of people who are in fact voting by mail in ballots which has been in practice but never to this scale. America is seeing record turnout for this election, and COVID is not taking a day off so we can vote. Another outbreak not just threatens our most fundamental aspect of government, but also it threatens the progress that was made just a few months prior. More and more counties and states are enforcing more mandates whether that be to wear masks or shutting down restaurants and business. If this next outbreak is not contained the economic impact could very well be detrimental to many small economies throughout this country.