JAKARTA - The Moderna company stated that its experimental vaccine was 94.5 percent effective against COVID-19. This was conveyed through a release on Monday, November 16. Moderna is the second vaccine in the United States (US) which has a very high success rate.
"This is definitely a very interesting result," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease doctor in the US.
Quoting CNN, Tuesday, November 17, Moderna heard the results by telephone on Sunday afternoon November 15 with members of the Security and Data Monitoring Council, an independent panel that analyzes Moderna's clinical trial data.
"It was one of the greatest moments in my life and career. It was great to be able to develop this vaccine and see its ability to prevent symptomatic disease with such high efficacy," said Dr. Tal Zacks, chief medical officer of Moderna,
Vaccinations could start in the second half of December, Fauci said. Vaccination is expected to start with high-risk groups and will be made available to the entire population in the coming spring. Earlier last week, Pfizer announced that preliminary data showed its vaccine is more than 90% effective against COVID-19.
In the Moderna trial, 15,000 study participants were given a placebo, which is an injection that has no effect. Over the course of several months, 90 of them developed COVID-19, with 11 developing the severe illness. After that, another 15,000 participants were given the vaccine, and only five of them developed COVID-19. Neither of the five people was seriously ill.
Moderna said the vaccine had no serious side effects. A small proportion of those who receive it experience symptoms such as body aches and headaches. Moderna plans to register with the US Food and Drug Administration for vaccine authorization as soon as it collects more safety data later this month.
Fauci said he expected the first COVID-19 vaccinations to start "towards the end of December, not early December." Initially, there won't be enough vaccines for everyone. The group with the highest priority, which includes health care workers, the elderly, and people with underlying medical conditions, will get the vaccine first.
"I think everyone will start getting vaccinated towards the end of April," Fauci said. "And it will last until May, June, July. It will take several months to do it."
Although the two vaccines appear to have very similar safety and efficacy profiles, the Moderna vaccine has significant practical advantages over Pfizer. The Pfizer vaccine should be stored at minus 75 degrees Celsius. No vaccine in the US needs to be stored that cold and doctors' offices and pharmacies do not have refrigerators that cold.
Meanwhile, the Moderna vaccine can be stored at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius. Other vaccines, such as those against chickenpox, need to be stored at that temperature. This means that the Moderna vaccine can be stored in the refrigerator available at most doctor's offices and pharmacies. Another advantage of the Moderna vaccine is that it can be stored for 30 days in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, the Pfizer Vaccine can only last five days in the refrigerator.
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