It can’t just be bad news forever for the global economy.
After close to a year of depressing developments on all fronts, green shoots of recovery are in sight despite the raging virus still wreaking havoc on the financial world.
American biotechnology company Moderna said on Monday its Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in a large late-stage clinical trial. The highly positive result comes just a week after Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech said their shot is more than 90% effective in an interim analysis. 
The best-case outcome: Soon, millions of people around the world could be spared from illness by the breakthroughs.
Global stock markets surged on Monday reflecting the long-term economic impact of viable virus vaccines. All three major US stock indexes advanced with new closing records. 
The once-in-a-century pandemic has spread out its infectious thorns across the world with a one-size-fits-all impudence. With that, it has also subverted the established paradigms of doing business.
The International Monetary Fund has said it expects a global recession this year that will be at least as severe as the downturn during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, followed by a recovery in 2021.
The Institute of International Finance has said it projects a 1.5% contraction in the global economy this year, with advanced economies shrinking 3.3%. Bloomberg Economics estimated in March the cost of lost output in 2020 at more than $3tn.
The pandemic is upending food supply chains, crippling economies, and eroding consumer purchasing power. 
Make no mistake, the current vaccine euphoria has to be deconstructed with a lot of caution.
There are currently more than 170 vaccines at various stages of development with 29 of those performing trials on humans. 
All goes well, Pfizer could apply for authorisation in the US this month.
But global demand for vaccines is expected to far exceed initial supplies despite significant efforts to ramp up production ahead of time. 
Moderna has already reached agreements to supply 100mn doses to the US and 80mn to the European Union, among others. 
Pfizer and BioNTech also have their own deals for hundreds of millions of shots.
The fast-emerging vaccine nationalism has shed the spotlight on the rich-poor-divide when it comes to finding an effective cure for the pandemic that has killed more than 1.3mn people and infected more than 55mn.
Public health specialists warn that such inward-looking vaccine nationalism could result in the pandemic lasting longer.
Although international groups and a number of nations are promising to make vaccines affordable and accessible to all, doses will likely struggle to keep up with demand in a world of roughly 7.8bn people. 
As things stand now, it’ll take until 2024 to inoculate the world’s entire population, according to Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker. 
There are silver linings, too. Covid won’t be a pandemic for “a lot longer” thanks to rapid progress in vaccine development, according to Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official.
Fighting the virus calls for patience. The world cannot just afford to wait and hope but needs proactive options to bring the deadly virus to its knees.