Another COVID-19 vaccine is on the verge of authorization after an FDA analysis determined Moderna’s vaccine as safe and “highly effective.”
An independent panel will review the findings and the vaccine could be shipped as soon as this weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine trial got its start at Seattle’s Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Members from Seattle’s tech community were part of the first group of participants to get their shots in the initial Moderna trials.
The news comes just after the FDA on Friday approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use; the first doses were administered Monday. Washington state expects to receive 62,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first allocation this week. The initial phase 1a doses will go to “high-risk workers in healthcare settings, highest-risk first responders, and to residents and staff of long-term care facilities,” officials said.
Health experts at the GeekWire Summit in October stressed that authorizations would be only an interim step toward getting a vaccine widely distributed.
COVID-19 infections have spiked since September in the U.S., where 300,000 people have now died due to the pandemic. Washington state has reached more than 200,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths.
