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Coronavirus

16th Nov 2020

New Moderna Covid-19 vaccine shows nearly 95% protection from virus

Wayne Farry

The vaccine is being produced by US company Moderna

Early testing on a new Covid-19 vaccine has found it to be close to 95 percent effective at preventing people from catching the virus, data from manufacturer Moderna has revealed.

The news, which followed a trial involving 30,000 people, follows on the heels of similar data from Pfizer and BioNTech, two companies who last week revealed that the vaccine they’re working on has a success rate of more than 90 percent.

Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna’s can be stored at relatively normal temperatures. Pfizer’s vaccine must be kept in ultra cold storage of at around -75C, while Moderna’s remains stable at minus 20C for up to six months.

Both vaccines use a highly experimental approach to teaching the body to protect against the virus, which involves injecting the Covid-19 genetic code into the human body.

This, according to the BBC, leads to the immune system creating viral proteins, rather than the whole virus, which is enough for the immune system to fight it off.