The Pfizer early results were good also.

However, one cannot minimize the importance of vaccine efficacy *on whom.” A flu-level efficiency (you quote 40%) which is progressively less effective on older Americans does not get us back to anything close to normal, because seniors will always have to be carefully safeguarded, not to mention how much money seniors will *not* be pumping into the economy when it comes to retiree travel and the like.

That said, one of the reasons why flu efficiency is so weak is that there is never a version 2.0 of the vaccine. If we can get a reasonably good result for a COVID vaccine at v 1.0, then efforts can immediately begin to improve it for vulnerable populations.

That all said, “normal” could be five years out.