Moderna Vaccine is 2nd US FDA Approved Covid Vaccine
The US government has approved the Moderna vaccine as the second Covid 19 vaccine in the world, paving the way for millions of doses to be released.
About a week after approving a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that is now being sold, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the US-made jab.
The US has decided that 200 million doses of Moderna will be purchased, and six million doses could be ready to ship now.
The nation has the largest number of Covid-19 deaths and cases worldwide. According to Johns Hopkins University, it has reported more than 313,500 deaths and about 17.5 million infections.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said Friday’s emergency approval of the vaccine marked “another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day”
The approval came after an advisory panel voted 20-0 with one abstention on Thursday that the benefits of the Moderna vaccine outweighed the risks for those aged 18 and over.
Earlier this week, regulators announced that the Moderna vaccine was safe and 94 percent successful.
US President Donald Trump, who tweeted that the vaccine was “overwhelmingly approved” and delivery will “start immediately” hours before the official announcement, said on Twitter: “Congratulations, the Moderna vaccine is now available!”
The approval of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs “assures us that brighter days lie ahead” said President-elect Joe Biden, who is due to be vaccinated on Monday. But, he said, “the fight against Covid-19 is not yet over.”
“We know the immense challenges ahead, including scaling up manufacturing, distribution, and the monumental task of vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans. We need to make sure we have the resources to do all of this and to do it quickly.”
How does Moderna vaccine vary from the vaccine given by Pfizer?
For shipping, it needs temperatures of about -20C – equivalent to a regular freezer. Temperatures closer to -75C are required for the jab developed by US corporation Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech SE, rendering transport logistics far more difficult.
The Moderna vaccine also requires a second booster injection, much like the Pfizer jab. The second injection of Moderna comes 28 days after the first, compared with 21 days for Pfizer.
How Vaccines Compare
Moderna is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and had previously said it would deliver the “vast majority” of its doses there. There are many countries where Pfizer/BioNTech is made, including Germany and Belgium.
The Moderna vaccine was also requested by other countries:
- By March, Canada expects to collect two million doses – part of a total of 56 million doses
- Seven million doses have already been pre-ordered by the UK
- Last month, the European Union signed a deal to buy 80 million doses – with the option of buying up to 80 million more doses – once the vaccine is considered safe and reliable.
- According to data collected by the Duke University Global Health Innovation Center, Japan has signed up for 50 million doses, South Korea has signed up for 20 million, and Switzerland has ordered 7.5 million.
Vinh, Managing Director of BM International Group, with locations based in the US & Vietnam, is keeping a close eye on stock levels and the availability to import the Covid vaccine into Vietnam to support the Vietnamese people as soon as possible
Who Will Get The New Vaccine First?
By April, the US vaccine program aims to hit 100 million individuals. When the Pfizer/BioNTech rollout began on Monday, New York nurse Sandra Lindsay was among the first individuals in the nation to receive a coronavirus vaccine. On the Twitter feed of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state was the epicentre of the US epidemic in the first wave earlier this year, footage of her being vaccinated was streamed.
Ms Lindsay said, “I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history. I want to instil public confidence that the vaccine is safe. We’re in a pandemic and so we all need to do our part.” Guidelines sent to US states by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claim that first priority should be given to healthcare staff, as well as Americans living in long-term care homes.
It is expected that critical staff will be next in line for the jab, but it will be up to states to determine which sectors to prioritize. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientist of the Operation Warp Speed federal vaccine distribution scheme, says the young and healthy should be at the bottom of the line. It is important to vaccinate at least 70 percent or 80 percent of the US population to achieve herd immunity, he said.
Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said in a statement on Friday that he hoped that “all Americans will protect themselves by getting vaccinated when the vaccine becomes available to them”
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