Lifehacker: “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the optimism that “we’ll get through this” and be “back to normal” sometime soon has been pinned to the development and approval of an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna have been conducting clinical trials for multiple formulations of COVID vaccines at testing sites across the globe for several months now. And while some Phase 3 trials are underway, and we’re getting closer, there’s still a lot of work to be done before a COVID vaccine is proven to be safe and effective, let alone made publicly available.  Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that they have the world’s first approved* COVID-19 vaccine. In a segment on Russian state TV that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a late 19th century traveling medicine show, Putin noted that he is so confident in the vaccine that his own daughter has gotten it. Needless to say, we have a lot of questions about this vaccine and its development. Here’s some of what we know—and don’t know—about it so far..”