For the second time this month, there’s promising news from a COVID-19 vaccine candidate: Moderna says its shots provide strong protection, a dash of hope against the grim backdrop of coronavirus surges around the world.
Moderna says its vaccine appears to be 94.5 percent effective, according to preliminary data from the company’s still ongoing study. A week ago, competitor Pfizer Inc. announced its own COVID-19 vaccine appeared similarly effective — news that puts both companies on track to seek permission within weeks for emergency use in the US.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president, welcomes the “really important milestone” but says having similar results from two different companies is what’s most reassuring.
A subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, March 16, 2020. (AP/Ted S. Warren, File)
“That should give us all hope that actually a vaccine is going to be able to stop this pandemic and hopefully get us back to our lives,” Hoge says. “It won’t be Moderna alone that solves this problem. It’s going to require many vaccines” to meet the global demand.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in June that Israel signed a deal with Moderna for a future coronavirus vaccine, without specifying the number of doses that would be supplied or the financial details of the agreement.
Last week Israel also signed a deal with Pfizer for its vaccine.
— with AP
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