The pandemic has been ongoing for a very long time. Too long. At this point I don't even know how long. 6 months? 7? 10? However, this blog will uncover some news that will make you hopeful and happy that there is a possible near end in sight. Experts and scientists have been saying wearing protective equipment is not meant to end the virus altogether, but instead to slow down the spread. Additionally, the experts and scientists’ light at the end of a tunnel is a COVID-19 vaccine. If you don't know, a vaccine is essentially a substance that helps people build an immunity to viruses such as the COVID-19 virus we are all evidently experiencing. The issue was that vaccines take a very long time to produce, sometimes even ranging upwards of ten years some experts say. This is because it usually takes a very long time to test, certify, and distribute the vaccine. Thankfully, since COVID-19 was such a massive concern, the international community really became more effective at producing vaccines, and some potential candidates were just announced to be very effective in testing. This is good news because the most important aspect of developing vaccines is ensuring that they are safe and healthy because they will eventually be injected into a very large proportion of the population in hopes of effectively eliminating the potential spread of a virus. Specifically, there are numerous company candidates in phase three of clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines and the most notable ones are AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna,,Johnson and Johnson, just to name a few. Moreover, both Pfizer and Moderna have released that their vaccines are very effective which is very good news because once these vaccines are safe for the public that means they are very close to finishing the last stages and distributing the vaccine to the population. This COVID-19 news for this week is very good because it provides us with hope and reassurance that there is an end in sight of our lives returning to some degree of normalcy. However, this does not mean we should start slacking on wearing PPE and social distancing, we actually have to maintain these and even improve on them until the experts tell us we are 100% in the clear which may not happen even after a long time after any vaccines are implemented. Thank you for reading this blog and hopefully it made you more aware and even a little bit more optimistic as it did with me researching and learning about the current state of vaccination.