Moderna COVID-19 vaccine authorized by US FDA, second vaccine after Pfizer

The United States of America FDA authorized the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Friday. Millions of doses will be shipped across the country affected the most by the pandemic. This marks the world’s first authorization for Moderna’s vaccine shots. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by the UK on December 2, followed by other countries including the United States. 

US President Donald Trump congratulated Moderna. His tweet read:

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Millions of doses are set to arrive by Monday after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health, as per AP reports. "With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day," said FDA Commissioner Stephen M Hahn to PTI.

Joe Biden to get the vaccine on Monday

US President-elect Joe Biden and future first lady, Jill Biden, will reportedly get vaccine doses on Monday. US Vice President Mike Pence received the Pfizer-BioNTech shot on live television, along with Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Friday, to assure the people about the effectiveness of the vaccine.

"As the Christmas holiday approaches, this is always a season of hope. We gather here today at the end of a historic week to affirm to the American people that hope is on the way," Pence said.

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The Moderna vaccine is similar to Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech that is now being dispensed to millions of health care workers and nursing home residents.

'Science has done something amazing'

"The two work better than we almost dared to hope,” National Institutes of Health (NIH)Director Dr. Francis Collins told The Associated Press. “Science is working here, science has done something amazing.”

“Frankly if we don’t succeed in getting 80% or so of Americans immunized against COVID-19 by the middle of this 2021 year, we have the risk that this epidemic could go on and on and on,” Collins added. 

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The company expects to have over 100 million doses available all around the world in the first quarter of 2021, with 85-100 million doses available in the US, Moderna said.

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(With AP and PTI inputs)