Moderna vaccine is 94,5 % effective against COVID 19, according to company’s data released on Monday, November 16. Moderna is the second vaccine in the United States to have a high success rate. A week earlier Pfizer announced that it’s vaccine is 90% effective against coronavirus.

Moderna company conducted a 30,000 patient study, in which only 95 cases of infection were detected. The studied group included people of different race and age. “The overall effectiveness has been remarkable… it’s a great day,” Tal Zaks, the chief medical officer at Moderna, told BBC News. 

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based on the same mRNA technology. Pfizer vaccine requires two injections 21 days apart and Moderna vaccine requires two injections 4 week apart. Pfizer’s vaccine is 90% effective, meanwhile Moderna vaccine is 95% effective. Pfizer vaccine should be stored at -75C and Moderna vaccine at -20C up to  6 months. Moderna vaccines could be easily shipped to different parts of the world and stored in refrigerator-like temperatures for 30 days. It can be stored in a standard home or medical refrigerator. The moderate temperatures makes the vaccine practical and easy to store. 

The main question that occurs is how the Moderna vaccine works. Scientists take part of the virus genetic code that tells cells what to build and coat in a lipid so it can enter the body’s cell. The RNA vaccine is injected into the patient. The vaccine enters the cells and tells them to produce the coronavirus spike protein, which prompts the immune system to produce antibodies and activate T-cells to destroy infected cells. If the patient encounters coronavirus, the antibodies and T-cells are triggered to fight the virus.The vaccine has no major side effects. A few patients had headaches, pain and short lived fatigue. “These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that is working and inducing a good immune response,” said Prof Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London.

I interviewed several WESS students about whether they would want to  take the vaccine when it comes out and why or why not. Their opinions are quite interesting. 

Junior Bella Buersor wants to get the vaccine when it becomes available.

“I would get the vaccine because I think that if as many people as possible receive it, COVID-19 could be mostly eradicated similarly to other dangerous diseases in the past that barely exist anymore thanks to their vaccines,” Bursor said. 

Junior  Daisy Koffler would also take the vaccine.

“I would want to take the COVID-19 vaccine because I’d really like to get back to school and I don’t really know what the worst thing that could happen from it would be,” Koffler said. “ I know it’s already been tried on a lot of people, so if they are fine I would probably be ok too.”

With all the advancements the company made is the vaccine set to be approved soon? The companies said they will file for an emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, and will file with other global regulators. The European Medicines Agency announced Monday that it has begun a rolling review of the Moderna vaccine.

Moderna vaccine has delivered better results than expected. If the vaccine will be approved, Moderna will be the major company to combat the coronavirus. The top priority groups that will be vaccinated first are elderly people and people with different health conditions. The Moderna and Pfizer announcements have raised hope among people. The pandemic may soon be over.