A second coronavirus vaccine is a step closer to the arms of Americans. An advisory group voted Thursday to recommend to the Food and Drug Administration that it authorize the Moderna vaccine for emergency use, as they did last week for the Pfizer vaccine.
Members of the advisory committee on vaccines and related biological products voted 20-0 with one abstention in favor of the vaccine.
The FDA is expected to quickly authorize emergency use of the vaccine in the fight against COVID-19, which means it could start being administered as early as next week.
The group vote indicates that members believe that, given all the scientific evidence, the benefits outweigh the risks for people 18 years of age or older.
“Going from having a virus sequence in January to having two vaccines available in December is a remarkable achievement,” said Dr. James Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, a member of the group.
The committee, which provides advice to the agency, last week offered a thumbs up for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The FDA authorized it the next day. Healthcare workers and other priority recipients were initiated receive this vaccine on Monday in what will be the largest vaccination program in the country’s history.
“The evidence that has been studied in detail about this vaccine far exceeds any of the problems we have seen and it really supports us to be able to place the pandemic on our background, really move forward and finally provide a safe and effective way to achieve the herd immunity, ”said Dr. Hayley Gans, a board member, a pediatrician at Stanford University Medical Center and a professor of pediatrics.
The Modern vaccine was reported to be more than 94% effective, similar to that of Pfizer. But unlike the Pfizer vaccine, it has to be shipped and stored at ultra cold temperaturesModern, can be maintained at standard freezer temperatures. Both vaccines are required two doses; the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine should be given 21 days after the first, while the Moderna dose is given 28 days later.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the United States has seen more than 17.1 million people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 310,000 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began earlier this year. On Wednesday, 3,600 deaths and more than 247,000 new cases were recorded amid a nationwide increase in the weeks following the Thanksgiving holiday. This is an increase of almost 10% in the cases of the last week, with states like Maine, which increased by about 20% and New Hampshire, with 21.2%.
So far, two health workers in Alaska reported allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine.