First Trial of Moderna's Coronavirus Vaccine Produces Immune Response in All Participants

Authored by ecowatch.com and submitted by Sorin61
image for First Trial of Moderna's Coronavirus Vaccine Produces Immune Response in All Participants

Results from the Phase 1 trial of Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech firm Moderna's coronavirus vaccine show it is safe and produces an immune response.

The preliminary report of the trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine Tuesday, reveals that all 45 participants developed so-called neutralizing antibodies that bind to the virus and stop it from attacking other cells. They developed these antibodies at levels comparable to the upper half of COVID-19 survivors. "The good news is that this vaccine induced antibodies," director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci told Bloomberg News. "Not just any kind of antibodies, but neutralizing antibodies."

Public health experts agree that a vaccine is necessary to return life to normal in the wake of a pandemic that has infected millions and killed almost 575,000, according to Reuters. More than one vaccine will probably be required, because it will be difficult for any one company to produce the billions of doses needed, The New York Times pointed out. "None of us are safe unless all of us are safe," Columbia University virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen told The New York Times. "It's not just us. It's everybody in the world." The Moderna vaccine candidate was the first to be tested on human subjects, and Tuesday's published paper confirms the positive results reported by the company in May.

In the trial, 45 people aged 18 to 55 received two doses of the vaccine 28 days apart, according to Reuters. They received doses of either 25, 100 or 250 micrograms. More than half of the people who received the middle dose experienced side effects like fatigue, chills, headache and muscle pain and 40 percent of them developed a fever after the second dose, according to Bloomberg. Three of the 14 people who received the highest dose suffered severe side effects, but the company has decided to stop testing that dose. Fauci said the side-effects were normal and not a cause for concern, but other experts disagreed. "Man, that is a lot of adverse events," Tony Moody, a doctor and researcher at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, told Bloomberg. However, Moody also said the amount of antibodies produced was "really encouraging."

Skelly_YT452 on July 15th, 2020 at 16:57 UTC »

If all goes well this will be available end of 2020 beginning of 2021. We really don’t give enough credit to the scientists who have worked their asses off ever since this began. Tirelessly working on finding a vaccine 24/7.

Canyousourcethatplz on July 15th, 2020 at 13:29 UTC »

This is great news!

Sophie74656 on July 15th, 2020 at 12:38 UTC »

Something actually uplifting!