The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, working with German biotech company BioNTech, released an interim analysis on 9 November suggesting their vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19. With 40 million doses earmarked for the UK (10 million doses by the end of the year, with a further 30 million doses already ordered), the breakthrough could be instrumental in helping get Britain back to normal by Spring. There are, however, logistical challenges, as the vaccine needs to be stored in ultra-cold storage at or below -80C. Here is a round up of everything you need to know about the vaccine: What is the vaccine? The jab is known as a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Traditional vaccines work by injecting a deactivated or weakened form of the pathogen into the body in order to train it to recognise and defeat the active virus. However, both the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines seek to introduce into the body a genetic sequence that prompts human cells to churn out parts of the Sars-Cov-2 virus, so the body can learn to deal with it that way. No actual virus is needed to create an mRNA vaccine. This means the rate at which the vaccine can be produced is dramatically accelerated.