FDA releases data on Moderna’s COVID vaccine: It looks good [Updated]

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As the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were administered yesterday, most of the US public began a potentially long waiting game, as the vaccine will be in short supply for many months and is being administered to healthcare workers and the elderly first. For most of the US, that means waiting until manufacturing can catch up with our needs.

One thing that could significantly speed vaccinations is the approval of additional vaccines, and here the news is also good: today, the Food and Drug Administration released detailed data on Moderna's RNA-based vaccine, finding it well over 90 percent effective. These numbers make it highly likely that the FDA will issue an Emergency Use Authorization when it considers the issue on Thursday.

The previous data on the vaccine's efficacy had been delivered by press release in mid-November. The FDA's documentation is, as you'd expect, far more detailed. We'll provide a summary of it here.

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