This Is The Difference Between Moderna And Sinovac Vaccines According To The Indonesian Food and Drug Administration
JAKARTA - Indonesia received a grant of 4 million doses of the Moderna type of COVID-19 vaccine, which was donated by the United States through the COVAX facility scheme.
The Indonesian Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) has approved the use of an emergency permit (EUA) for the Moderna vaccine with 94.1 percent efficacy for ages 18 to 65 years. Meanwhile, at the age of 65 years and over 86.4 percent.
The spokesperson for the COVID-19 vaccination of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the Moderna vaccine grant was not used for mutual cooperation programs or self-vaccination. But for government programs.
"That is the Government's program", she said, Tuesday, July 6.
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So, what is the difference between Moderna and Sinovac vaccines?
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine has indeed received an emergency use permit (EUA) from the BPOM. But apparently, this vaccine requires a different storage method from the vaccines that previously existed in Indonesia.
Citing information from the COVID-19 Task Force, Moderna is a vaccine developed from mRNA, so it requires a different storage technology from vaccines from inactivated virus platforms such as Sinovac.
This vaccine needs storage facilities at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius. To maintain its quality, the Moderna vaccine will be delivered to Indonesia along with its storage and distribution technology.
In addition to being proven safe for comorbid people and effective in warding off various new coronavirus variants such as the Alpha variant, Beta variant, Gamma variant, this mRNA-tech COVID-19 vaccine also has safe data for use in pregnant women. However, for the injection of the Moderna vaccine to pregnant women, they are still waiting for the BPOM's permission.
"And also there is data showing that the efficacy is still protecting people who are not infected with COVID-19 on the Alpha, Beta, Gamma virus variants, and I think we also assess that this virus variant is developing", explained the Head of the BPOM Penny K Lukito.
This, said Penny, was one of the considerations for BPOM to grant EUA. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine has also been included in the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use listing (EUL) list.