Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Is 94.5% Effective in Early Results

 

 

Moderna  said its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective at protecting people from Covid-19 in an early look at pivotal study results, the second vaccine to hit a key milestone in U.S. testing. 

Ninety-five people in the study developed Covid-19 with symptoms; of those, 90 had received a placebo and only five Moderna’s vaccine. 

Moderna had the first vaccine  to enter clinical trials in March 2020 ,Only 63 days after the genetic sequence of the virus was posted online, the company injected the first volunteer with its vaccine candidate. It was able to move so quickly because it used a gene-based technology to create its vaccine. Those types of vaccines are relatively simple to create once researchers know the viral gene they’re trying to target. 

 Moderna said it would have 20 million doses of its two-shot vaccine available by the end of 2020 and 500 million to 1 billion doses in 2021.

Meanwhile, the US is seeing record numbers of COVID-19 cases each day, with no end in sight. Even with this promising data, a vaccine won’t be available to most people for a few months at the very least.