The US biotech firm, Moderna, announced on Monday that their vaccine for Covid-19 which is currently undergoing its phase 3 study is 94.5% effective. In fact, the company will soon be applying for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. So, that it can be given to people visiting hospitals.
The Moderna vaccine is a type of RNA vaccine, which means that a small portion of the genetic code of the coronavirus is injected into the person’s body. This portion is big enough to make viral proteins and not the whole virus. The viral proteins will increase the ability of the body to produce suitable antibodies and T-cells. Which will be ready to come into action whenever the person gets infected by the virus.
Trial and Results Of Moderna
The vaccine has been thoroughly tested and tried on 30,000 people who are residing in the US. 15,000 of these people were given two doses of the vaccine under trial. In contrast, the other 15,000 people were given dummy injections. Then, an analysis was carried out on the first 95 people who contracted Covid.
Moreover, out of these 95 people, only 5 had been given the actual vaccine. The other 90 had been injected with dummy injections. This bought them to their conclusion that the vaccine was able to protect 94.5% of people. This overall effectiveness of the vaccine has raised hopes of the people as they look forward to a world without masks and lockdown.
Availability of Moderna
Hopefully, the vaccine will soon be available for people living in the US. Additionally, the company claims to have 20 million doses available for the US public.
However, if you live in any other part of the world, you will have to wait a bit as it will be available approximately by the next year. Moderna is trying its best to make as many doses available as possible, and they are trying to get approval for the usage of their vaccine. This means that the vaccine will be ready for you to use as soon as your country’s heads approve it.
Things yet to be discovered
The volunteers have been recently injected with the vaccine because of which we have no idea about how long the vaccine will provide immunity and increase fitness. To find out the answer to that question, we will have to wait for some time. But the good news is that the company is claiming that the vaccine has equal effects on all ages.
We still do not know about how safe the vaccine is. Although, some patients did report fatigue for a short time, headache and pain.
Comparison between Pfizer and the Moderna Vaccine
The Pfizer vaccine was announced just a couple of weeks before the Moderna Vaccine. It offers 90% protection against the virus, which is comparatively less than the Moderna. But, it would be wrong to come at a conclusion at this stage of the trial since both the vaccine are still under trial. The results of both the vaccine can change over time.
Another thing to compare is that the Moderna vaccine can be stored for 6 months at -20°C and in the fridge for 1 month. On the other hand, the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at a shallow temperature of -75°C; it lasts for a long time. If the vaccine is kept in the fridge, it will remain good for use for 5 days only.
End of this Pandemic
Previously, it was expected that a vaccine would be available and that too will only be 50% effective on this deadly virus. However, Moderna and Pzifer vaccines have changed people’s outlooks with their outstanding results. Furthermore, these vaccines also bring us to think about a day when Covid-19 will completely end.
According to some experts who were questioned on this matter, the pandemic will end by spring or winter. On the contrary, many think that there is a long journey ahead of us. Although the vaccine has been made, it has to be injected in a huge number of people which in itself is a gigantic task.
