COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Despite data showing a high rate of success in one COVID-19 study, local medical experts are warning about the still long road ahead in the battle against the pandemic.

Pfizer revealed early data from a vaccine study Monday, showing 90 percent effectiveness.

And with COVID-19 cases approaching 10 million, doctors said vaccine progress is providing a light at the end of the COVID tunnel.

“This is a marathon, it is not a race. And the marathon is continuing,” said Dr. Joseph Gastaldo from OhioHealth.

Pfizer is expected to apply for Emergency Use Authorization before the end of month, and the vaccine could come to market before the end of the year.

However, it could still be some time before its availability becomes widespread.

“There’s other hoops, and a whole other process that still has to happen,” Gastaldo said.

That process, which includes Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval before being given the green light by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has been expedited by the Trump Administration’s “Operation Warp Speed.”

“It set the mechanism in place for all of that data safety monitoring and everything else that happens to occur on a 24/7 basis,” Gastaldo said.

The safety monitoring boards reviewed 94 infections as part of the current Pfizer study, showing no patients developed severe illness from the vaccine.

More information will become available as the saple size grows, much like the flu.

“We may learn that a particular type of vaccine does better in a segment of the population,” Gastaldo said. “If you get the influenza vaccination, and then you still get the flu, you are statistically less likely to die from the flu or have influenza with a high severity of illness.”

So when might a vaccine be available to the country’s more than 300 million people?

“I feel confident in saying that, hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll have widespread vaccination for anyone that wants it,” Gastaldo hopes.

Experts said once a vaccine is approved by, then comes the challenge of both manufacturing and distributing the vaccine.

The Pfizer study, which has more than 44,000 people enrolled, will continue until it reaches 164 total infections.