Dr. Anthony Fauci referred to Massachusetts-based Moderna's announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective as "truly striking" on Monday.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force responded to the reported results during a conference call Monday morning, CBS Boston reports.
“The results of this trial are truly striking,” Fauci said. “I said I would be satisfied with a 70-75% efficacy and that something like a 95% was very aspirational. Well our aspirations have been met and that is very good news."
On Monday, the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company said it underwent trials with 30,000 participants, which saw 15,000 individuals receive the vaccine and the other half receive a placebo. During the trial, only 90 individuals contracted COVID-19 and 11 of that group developed severed forms of COVID-19.
Additionally, participants who received the vaccine didn't experience serious side effects, while few had minor side effects such as head or body aches.
Last week, Pfizer reported an effective rate of more than 90% for its COVID-19 vaccine.
President-elect Joe Biden also shared two tweets in response to news of Moderna's trials, noting that it gave "further reason to feel hopeful," but cautiously warned "we are still months away. Until then, Americans need to continue to practice social-distancing and mask-wearing to get the virus under control."
“Once again, I congratulate the brilliant women and men who produced this breakthrough and have brought us one step closer to beating this virus,” Biden tweeted. “I am also thankful for the frontline workers who are still confronting the virus around the clock.”
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