Researchers, scientists, public health experts told me the same thing: we can't just sit around waiting for vaccines. (Yes, multiple!) There are 165+ vaccines in development. (Great!) There will likely be vaccines brought to market. But maybe not. So, how do we live with a virus? https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1294992318496485376

Experts say we need to invest in better, faster testing, better contact tracing, better public health measures. Better therapies will come too. All of this will make it livable. There is no scenario, no one vaccine where we go straight to "normal." Bottom line: IT'S A LONG ROAD.

The vaccine (again, there will be multiple) has been dangled as a savior, a get-out-of-jail-free card. Scientiests say it's unrealistic and has lulled us into looking for one light at the end of a short tunnel. @PeterHotez helpfully described vaccines as "companion technologies."

Also, as @ASlavitt notes, scientists can't yet tell us what early vaccines may allow us to do. What elements of daily life can we resume? Will they allow your 80 yo grandfather to go to a football game? Or will they help protect frontline healthcare workers? @TODAYshow

More @PeterHotez: "Bottom line is our 1st vaccines may not be our best vaccines. Our best vaccines will likely come later that's why I don't really like using this term 'race' bc it's extremely misleading -- if it is any type of a 'race' it's a it's a several year marathon."

This rang really true to me, @ASlavitt: "What the burden should be in my view is to make sure that we equally distribute the opportunity. That's my great fear." He added: "Great societies solve problems for everybody not just for the people making decisions."