November 09, 2020 08:25 AM UTC

Hope Outbreak Grips Nation

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s morning in America, as the Washington Post reports:

U.S. stocks soared Monday, as promising coronavirus vaccine news and Joe Biden’s White House victory sent investors into a frenzy.

The Dow Jones industrial average spiked nearly 1,600 points, or 5.6 percent, at opening bell Monday after drug giant Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech announced that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective, compared with a placebo. It is the strongest sign yet that the unprecedented effort, breaking every scientific speed record, to develop a vaccine was within sight…

Biden applauded Pfizer’s breakthrough in a statement Monday, but warned that the end of the battle against Covid-19 is still months away. “Today’s news does not change this urgent reality,” Biden said. “Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year.”

Despite plenty of caution flags underlying this good news on the vaccine front against the COVID-19 pandemic, markets are obviously very pleased with the development, along with the resolution of political uncertainty in the United States this weekend that provoked celebrations across the world this past week a la the final scene of Return of the Jedi. Take a few minutes to savor this good news before the bad news of the pandemic’s rapid acceleration over the past few weeks pulls you back to under the clouds.

In other news, an angry, defeated man is still angry. It’s a story we’re following, of course, but increasingly parenthetical to reality’s main track.