Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine 94 Percent Effective: Initial Data

The results mark the second experimental COVID-19 vaccine to show high efficacy, but the study is not complete and the data have not been peer reviewed.

Written byMax Kozlov

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Moderna announced that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is 94.5 percent effective at protecting people from infection, compared to patients who received a placebo saline shot, according to an interim analysis of 95 participants the company released today (November 16).

“These are obviously very exciting results,” Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells CNN, noting he expects the first vaccinations to begin toward the end of December. “It’s just as good as it gets—94.5 percent is truly outstanding.”

The results put Moderna’s vaccine on par with competitor Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, which was found to be 90 percent effective in a preliminary analysis of 94 participants. Both companies are expected to seek authorization for emergency use in the US and from other global regulators in the coming weeks. The European Medicines Agency announced today that it has begun a rolling review ...

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Meet the Author

Max Kozlov
Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.
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