{"id":645,"date":"2020-12-16T00:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T00:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=645"},"modified":"2020-12-16T00:32:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T00:32:42","slug":"second-covid-19-vaccine-nears-us-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=645","title":{"rendered":"Second Covid-19 vaccine nears US approval"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Moderna&#8217;s vaccine is safe and 94 percent effective, regulators say, clearing the way for US emergency authorisation.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis by the Food and Drug Administration&#8217;s (FDA) means it could become the second coronavirus vaccine to be allowed in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Americans across the country\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/world\/432866\/healing-is-coming-us-vaccinations-start-as-death-toll-passes-300-000\">began receiving jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine<\/a>\u00a0a day ago.<\/p>\n<p>The US coronavirus death toll has passed 300,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n<p>Endorsement of the Moderna vaccine by FDA scientists was announced two days before the vaccine panel meets to discuss emergency approval.<\/p>\n<h3>What were their findings?<\/h3>\n<p>The 54-page document said there were &#8220;no specific safety concerns&#8221; and that serious adverse reactions were rare.<\/p>\n<p>If approved by the team of experts later this week, and by the FDA&#8217;s vaccine chief, shipments could begin within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>The FDA found a 94.1 percent efficacy rate out of a trial of 30,000 people, according to the document they released.<\/p>\n<p>The most common side effects included fever, headaches, and muscle and joint pain.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the FDA released similar data from Pfizer before voting to issue approval.<\/p>\n<p>Moderna was founded in 2010 and so far has never had a product approved by the FDA.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s stocks have seen a nearly 700 percent increase so far this year.<\/p>\n<h3>How does it differ from the Pfizer jab?<\/h3>\n<p>The Moderna vaccine requires temperatures of around -20C for shipping &#8211; similar to a regular freezer.<\/p>\n<p>The Pfizer jab requires temperatures closer to -75C, making transport logistics much more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Like the Pfizer jab, the Moderna vaccine also requires a second booster shot. Moderna&#8217;s second jab comes 28 days after the first.<\/p>\n<p>The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has said that if approved, the &#8220;vast majority&#8221; of its vaccine would be manufactured there.<\/p>\n<p>Pfizer&#8217;s drug is being manufactured in several countries, including Germany and Belgium.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>&#8211; BBC<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moderna&#8217;s vaccine is safe and 94 percent effective, regulators say, clearing the way for US emergency authorisation. The analysis by the Food and Drug Administration&#8217;s (FDA) means it could become the second coronavirus vaccine to be allowed in the US. Americans across the country\u00a0began receiving jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine\u00a0a day ago. The US coronavirus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}