Analyst Note
| Karen Andersen, CFA |Following a year with more than 83 million reported cases and 1.8 million reported deaths globally due to COVID-19, 2021 begins as two newly authorized vaccines are distributed to high-priority populations in the United States and Europe. These mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have set a high bar for efficacy and safety, and they appear poised to ramp up supply and dominate the U.S. market throughout the first half of the year, supporting a foundation for herd immunity in the U.S. by midyear. With additional support from Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, AstraZeneca, and Chinese and Russian vaccine programs, global herd immunity looks achievable by 2023.