POTUS Donald Trump jumps to take credit as Moderna announce 94.5% COVID vaccine efficacy

Crying foul over the recently concluded US Presidential Elections, POTUS Donald Trump on Monday, jumped to take credit as Moderna announced that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has shown nearly 95% efficacy. In a tweet directed at his critiques, Trump asked them to take note of the great discoveries which will end the 'China Plague' and highlighted that it all happened under his watch. This comes after Pfizer had announced earlier that its COVID vaccine candidate showed over 90% efficacy, of which Trump had claimed credit as well. 

Following Donald Trump, his deputy Mike Pence too credited their administration for Moderna's success. Pence highlighted that Moderna had partnered with President Trump and the National Institutes of Health on January 13, 2020, for the development of the vaccine. Referring to Moderna's announcement, Pence tweeted, "Operation Warp Speed is a success because of the strong leadership of this President!"

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Trump and Pence's comments come as the duo continues to claim irregularities in the 2020 US Presidential Election, in which, the Democrats led by Joe Biden have emerged victorious, as per AP. Trump, who has 232 electoral college votes, has challenged the election results in various states including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. He had demanded a recount in Wisconsin. He has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud. All his lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful. As Trump has refused to concede the election, the transition team of Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris says that the Trump administration is not cooperating with them in transition. 

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Moderna announces 94.5% Efficacy of COVID vaccine

Announcing results of its phase three trials, Moderna on Monday reported that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has proven to be 94.5% effective. The biotechnology company has informed that it intends to submit the COVID-19 vaccine candidate for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with the United States' Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The analysis released by Moderna which has reported 94.5% efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine was based on results of more than 30,000 participants in the US. 

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The analysis report of the Moderna vaccine revealed that the 'preliminary analysis suggests a broadly consistent safety and efficacy profile across all evaluated subgroups. Moderna's Phase 3 trials are randomized and including providing vaccine shots at the 100 µg dose level in 30,000 participants in the U.S., ages 18 and older. 

On November 10, Pfizer Inc announced that its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate which was found 90 per cent effective in the first interim analysis from Phase III study, will be distributed in December across the US, Pfizer confirmed in a press release. Developed with the German partner BioNTech SE, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was declared effective against SARS-CoV-2 by the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) in an analysis conducted on November 8, 2020. 

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