COVID-19 vaccines: the pandemic will not end overnight

“This is the weapon that is going to win the war”, declared New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech), as its tentative rollout begins in the UK, the USA, and Canada. A great achievement for sure, but this first step in what will need to be a global mass immunisation programme will not immediately end the COVID-19 pandemic. Although control over the infection's most harmful effects is expected and limiting its spread can be hoped for, it will likely be a few years before the virus can be brought under control worldwide.