Moderna reports that they have developed a Coronavirus vaccine that was 95% effective in a clinical trial. Reuters. Along with Pfizer's vaccine the United States could have more then 60 million doses of both before the end of the year and 1 billion by the end of next year. In the Moderna trial there were 95 cases of the virus in the study and only five of those were among people that had the vaccine and none of those cases were severe. The Morderna vaccine has a major advantage over the Pfizer's in that it does not require cold storage to be effective. Morderna is part of President Trump's Warp Speed program and already has many doses of the vaccine ready. Most side effects of the vaccine were minor and included aches and pains. Both the Morderna and Pfizer vaccine will be provided free of charge regardless of insurance assuming that emergency use is granted.
My Comment:
This is hugely positive news in the fight against the Coronavirus. A 2nd vaccine that is even more effective then the first one will go a long way to stop the virus and bringing America to some semblance of normalcy. And it seems like people might begin receiving the vaccine as soon as December, or even sooner.
Even better is the fact that Moderna's vaccine appears to be easier to deal with logistically. Unlike the Pfizer vaccine it doesn't have to be stored at extremely low temperatures. This was going to be a huge problem with the Pfizer vaccine as many rural hospitals did not have the cold storage needed to deploy the vaccine. That problem is academic now as I am guessing the Pfizer vaccine will be deployed in areas that have access to cold storage and the Moderna vaccine will be deployed everywhere else. This means that our biggest obstacle for deploying the vaccine has melted away.
There are some issues that remain though, most notably that some of the side effects were severe enough that people could miss work. It sounds like some of the aches and pains were pretty terrible and a lot of people had fatigue but as someone who had a bad reaction to a flu shot this year, not wholly unexpected. I do worry about long term effects but at this point it might be worth the risk.
Adding into the good news though is it looks like we will be able to distribute this vaccine very fast. Moderna, through operation Warp Speed, has millions of doses ready so as soon as they get approval they can start giving people the vaccine. That could happen as soon as this week. I am guessing that the first priority will be health care workers with other critical workers getting it after that.
I fully expect to be one of those people that gets the vaccine sooner rather then later. My company has made it pretty clear that it's a question of when, not if, our workers will be vaccinated. Though I do have lingering doubts about these vaccines I am more then ready to take the risk just so I don't have to worry about catching the virus anymore. And as a critical worker in an industry that needs to operate if the country wants food I also understand that I probably have a duty to as well, even if there is some danger to be had. If I get some illness 20 years in the future so be it if it means my company stays open and America continues to be fed.
Regardless I am more then ready for this crap to be over with and a vaccine is probably our only way out. Yes, herd immunity will happen eventually but it's also pretty clear that many of our Democratic governors and other leadership will take any excuse to keep everything closed down. A vaccine will stop their efforts in their tracks and will finally allow some return to normalcy.
Of course another worry I have is that I still might get sick before I can get the vaccine. I have been exposed to at least three people that ended up testing positive for the virus and the latest was just last week (I actually just found out about that just minutes before I saw the headline about the vaccine). I would be furious and extremely disappointed if I had made it through this entire pandemic without getting sick (as far as I know) only to catch it right before vaccines become available...
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