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U.S. APPROVES MODERNA VACCINE TO BATTLE COVID
- By The Financial District
- Dec 19, 2020
- 2 min read
The US added a second COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to its arsenal Friday, boosting efforts to beat back an outbreak so dire that the nation is regularly recording more than 3,000 deaths a day, Lauran Neergaard and Matthew Perrone reported for the Associated Press (AP).
Much-needed doses are set to arrive Monday (Tuesday, December 22, 2020 in Manila) the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of the vaccine. The move marks the world’s first authorization for Moderna’s shots.
The vaccine is very similar to one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech that’s now being dispensed to millions of health care workers and nursing home residents as the biggest vaccination drive in U.S. history starts to ramp up.
The two work “better than we almost dared to hope,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told AP. “Science is working here, science has done something amazing.”
The FDA announced the authorization the day after the agency’s panel of outside experts endorsed its use and a week after the FDA authorized a vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE.
The vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, based on similar technology, has been put into the arms of thousands of US healthcare workers this week in a massive nationwide rollout. Moderna injections are expected to begin in coming days for adults 18 years old and up, Michael Erman reported for Reuters.
“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken 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,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D, said in a statement.
Moderna’s shot is expected to be used in harder-to-reach locations, such as rural hospitals. The vaccine needs to be stored and shipped frozen, but does not require the ultra-cold temperatures of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
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