Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine to Offer Protection For up to Couple of Years: Company’s CEO

The nightmare scenario that was described in the media in the spring with a vaccine only working a month or two is, I think, out of the window," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said

New Delhi: Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine is likely to protect an individual against Coronavirus infection for a couple of years, Reuters quoted the company’s chief executive as saying on Thursday. He, however, added that more data is needed to confirm the assessment.

“The nightmare scenario that was described in the media in the spring with a vaccine only working a month or two is, I think, out of the window,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said.”The antibody decay generated by the vaccine in humans goes down very slowly (…) We believe there will be protection potentially for a couple of years.”

Moderna vaccine was given Emergency Use Authorization in December. America has begun the first vaccinations of doses shipped by Pfizer and BioNTech, bringing “healing” to millions of people across the country, which has been the hardest hit by the pandemic and has lost 300,000 people to the coronavirus.

Moderna’s vaccine is based on the same technology as Pfizer’s – mRNA. The actual virus is not embedded inside these vaccines and people who get the shots can’t catch the virus from it. Instead, the vaccine contains a piece of genetic code that trains the body’s immune system to recognize the spike protein on the surface of the Covid-19 virus and helps mount an organic defence when the attack comes.

Earlier, Moderna Inc. had said its vaccine provides 100 per cent efficacy in protection against Coronavirus in severe cases. “Vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 was 94.1%; vaccine efficacy against severe infection was 100%,” the company had said in a statement.