NEW YORK | After an eight-hour debate, a high-power vaccine advisory panel approved Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It will be the second vaccine after Pfizer in the US for mass vaccination. A week ago, the same panel approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine. Vaccination work with the Pfizer vaccine began on 14 December in the US.
At around 5 pm on Thursday, the Advisory Committee put up the same question for the vote – based on available scientific evidence, can the Moderna Covid vaccine be used in people over 18 years of age?
One of the panel members, Dr. Paul Ophitt, said about Moderna’s vaccine that it is not that we know everything, the thing is, do we know enough about this vaccine?
If the FDA approves the Moderna vaccine, it will become the second vaccine to be approved in the US. In Pfizer’s case, the vaccine was approved by a 17–4 vote after 9 hours of discussion.
Moderna’s vaccine is based on Pfizer’s technology – mRNA. These vaccines do not contain the real virus and those who take the vaccine cannot infect the virus. The vaccine has a genetic code that trains the body’s immune system to recognize spike proteins on the surface of the covid-19 virus and helps protect when the virus attacks.
