Another Trump Victory on COVID-19: Moderna Vaccine Is 94.5 Percent Effective

On Monday, Moderna Inc. announced that its vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic had tested 94.5 percent effective, clearing important hurdles toward production and potential distribution in the coming months. The Moderna vaccine represents a second tremendous victory for the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which teamed up with medical companies to prepare a vaccine for COVID-19 as soon as possible. Last week, Pfizer announced its vaccine had tested more than 90 percent effective.

“This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. She thanked the study participants, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). “I want to thank our partners at BARDA and Operation Warp Speed who have been instrumental to accelerating our progress to this point,” she added.

The NIH-appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) told Moderna that the Phase 3 study of its vaccine candidate had “met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficiacy of 94.5%.” The study on the vaccine’s effectiveness involved more than 30,000 participants. Participants who did not take the vaccine contracted 90 cases of COVID-19, 11 of which were severe, while those who took the vaccine only contracted 5 cases. No one who took the vaccine had a severe case.