Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine recommended for people 18yrs and older: US CDC

US pharmaceutical firm Moderna Inc on December 19 said that the CDC panel has voted to recommend its coronavirus shot for people 18 and older. According to the official press release, the members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices voted 11-0 in favour of the vaccine, with three abstaining because of conflicts of interest. The vote result came just a day after the US FDA authorised the emergency use of Moderna’s COVID shot. 

Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said that the ACIP recommendation is another step forward in the quest to address the devastating pandemic with a vaccine. The recommendations are key to helping vaccine providers understand best practices for administering the coronavirus vaccine. Now, the CDC Director Robert Redfield must sign off on the group’s decisions before they are made final. 

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‘Another crucial step..’

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is the second to be authorised for emergency use in the United States, will be introduced amid more than 200,000 new daily cases being reported and record hospitalisations. 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.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is one of the several in which the US government has invested money for the quick development of a cure. The American firm has agreed to supply 100 million doses to the US government after receiving approval from the regulators. Last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) had secured an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate from Moderna. 

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