A second coronavirus vaccine is one step closer to Americans’ poor. An advisory panel voted Thursday to recommend the Food and Drug Administration Moderna’s vaccine for emergency use, as they did last week for Pfizer’s vaccine.
Members of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals voted 20-0 with one abstention from the vaccine.
The FDA is expected to quickly approve the vaccine’s use in the fight against COVID-19, meaning it could be administered as early as next week.
The panel vote indicates that members believe that, given all of the scientific evidence, the benefits outweigh the risks for people 18 years and older.
“Going from one virus sequence in January to two vaccines in December is a remarkable achievement,” said Dr. James Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, a member of the panel.
The committee, which advises the bureau, last week offered a thumbs-up to the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which was approved by the agency the next day. Health workers and other priority recipients have started received that 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 outweighs all the problems we have seen and it really supports us in putting the pandemic in our background, really moving forward, and ultimately providing a safe and effective way to immunity to herds, ”said panelist Dr. Hayley Gans, a pediatrician at Stanford University Medical Center and professor of pediatrics.
The Moderna vaccine is reported to have greater than 94% efficacy, comparable to that of Pfizer. But unlike the Pfizer vaccine, it must be shipped and stored with ultra-cold temperatures, Modernas can be kept at standard freezing temperatures. Both vaccines require two doses; the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine should be given 21 days after the first, while Moderna’s is given 28 days later.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the US 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. Wednesday saw a record 3,600 deaths and more than 247,000 new cases amid a nationwide peak in the weeks following the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s a nearly 10% increase in cases in the past week, with states like Maine seeing a nearly 20% increase and New Hampshire at 21.2%.
Two health workers in Alaska so far reported allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine.