Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial results
A new report provides the latest clinical data on the effectiveness of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna.
In recent months, developing and testing vaccines to reduce the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a priority. One of these vaccines is mRNA-1273, a COVID-19 vaccine that was developed in collaboration between two companies, Moderna and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Moderna is a Cambridge, Massachussets biotechnology company and NIAID is a subsidiary of the United States' National Institutes of Health (NIH).
This vaccine contains encapsulated messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) that codes for the spike protein that is present on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19, this vaccine cannot give COVID-19 to anyone because it does not contain the virus itself. Instead, this spike protein mRNA teaches the body to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus and develop an immune response against it so that the body can fight off the virus more efficiently when exposed.
The idea of making the vaccine based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was based on the vaccine against the structurally similar coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s. Due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine development had a high priority in scientific research, which helped to accelerate development.
To investigate the safety and effectiveness of this Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, a phase 3 clinical trial was conducted in nearly 100 centers in the United States. The results of this study were collected and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study included 30,420 volunteers; 50% of the participants received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the other 50% received a placebo. The study group consisted of roughly equal numbers of men and women, and the average age of the volunteers was 51 years. The study ran from July 27, 2020 to November 25, 2020. All participants were monitored for possible side effects for 28 days, and they were monitored to see if they developed COVID-19 afterwards.
The study found that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was 94.1% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 in this clinical study. In addition, there were no significant safety concerns, although approximately half of the participants in the vaccine group experienced side effects such as fatigue, muscle pain and headache in the two days after vaccination.
It is important to note that this study only determined the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. It was not determined whether this was necessarily effective in preventing asymptomatic COVID-19 development or COVID-19 transmission. Further research is needed to determine whether or not the vaccine is effective against the development and transmission of asymptomatic COVID-19.
References:
Baden, L.R., El Sahly, H.M., Essink B., Kotloff, K. et al. (2020). Effectiveness and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The New England Journal of Medicine. Doi: 10.1056 / NEJMoa2035389.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (December 18, 2020). U.S. Department of Health. Retrieved January 9, 2021 from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html
EurekAlert! (December 30, 2020). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved January 9, 2021 from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/nioa-pro123020.php
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