That's highly unimaginative. If you were the CEO of a company that's making a vaccine for a virus that has the entire world going batshit insane, and that, if effective, will probably sell billions of doses all over the world in the first wave, with a possibility of repeat business if the immunity doesn't last for very long, would you get rid of over a half of your stock? If everything is on the level then the stock should keep soaring, the announcement is just the first bump, it won't stop there.

But no, the CEO cashed out hard. The only conclusion is that either the vaccine plain doesn't work (highly likely given the amount of mutations), or it causes some serious side effects (somewhat less likely, however this is possibly the most rushed vaccine in history, and a first one of its kind at that), or both.

So here's what could plausibly have happened:

1. Pfizer has a vaccine that's useless or worse.
2. The CEO wants to get paid.
3. The "system" knows, and reaches to the CEO with a deal: we'll let you pump and dump by making a big announcement and then immediately cashing out, as long as you make sure the announcement comes after the election. (At this point it doesn't matter whether the vaccine is actually useful or not, nobody knows - but making the announcement before the election would definitely benefit Republicans regardless.)
4. This article and dozens of similar ones come out. Nobody investigates Pfizer's officers for insider trading, as per the deal. <--- You are here.
5. The vaccine turns out to be shit.
6. The media either says "oh no!" and then ignores it along with the rest of the Covid crisis, or blames Le Drumpf.

Oh and now that I think of it, the timing is absolutely perfect: the announcement came late enough to not give any points to Trump, but early enough that everyone will forget about it by the time Biden is potentially inaugurated.

This whole thing stinks like a Chinese wet market.

That's highly unimaginative. If you were the CEO of a company that's making a vaccine for a virus that has the entire world going batshit insane, and that, if effective, will probably sell billions of doses all over the world in the first wave, with a possibility of repeat business if the immunity doesn't last for very long, would you get rid of over a half of your stock? If everything is on the level then the stock should keep soaring, the announcement is just the first bump, it won't stop there.

But no, the CEO cashed out hard. The only conclusion is that either the vaccine plain doesn't work (highly likely given the amount of mutations), or it causes some serious side effects (somewhat less likely, however this is possibly the most rushed vaccine in history, and a first one of its kind at that), or both.

So here's what could plausibly have happened:

1. Pfizer has a vaccine that's useless or worse.
2. The CEO wants to get paid.
3. The "system" knows, and reaches to the CEO with a deal: we'll let you pump and dump by making a big announcement and then immediately cashing out, as long as you make sure the announcement comes after the election. (At this point it doesn't matter whether the vaccine is actually useful or not, nobody knows - but making the announcement before the election would definitely benefit Republicans regardless.)
4. This article and dozens of similar ones come out. Nobody investigates Pfizer's officers for insider trading, as per the deal. <--- You are here.
5. The vaccine turns out to be shit.
6. The media either says "oh no!" and then ignores it along with the rest of the Covid crisis, or blames Le Drumpf.