By 
WASHINGTON: The announcement on Monday by the American biotech company Moderna Inc that its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19 based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial buoyed the mood (and markets) in US even as pandemic surged to record levels across a country that is politically divided, among other issues, on the approach to the pandemic
Moderna’s breakthrough, coming on top of a similar announcement by Pfizer last week, and more success expected from at least ten other drug companies, means the US and the world could be on track to checkmate the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 regardless of politics.
Moderna is expected to file for emergency use authorisation after submitting safety data in the next few days. The FDA has said coronavirus vaccines should be at least 50 percent effective to be approved, and metrics disclosed by Moderna and Pfizer beat that comfortably.
Some experts cautioned that claims from both Moderna and Pfizer have not been evaluated in peer-reviewed scientific journals (the broad results were announced in press releases and there have been reports of people cashing out on rising stocks). But US officials appear to have no doubts about the authenticity of the claims. The country’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci told the New York Times would be happy with a 75 per cent effective vaccine and Moderna’s claim of 94.5 per cent is “very impressive.”
The US government has already locked in 100 million doses of the vaccine, with the understanding that frontline medical and healthcare personnel and the most vulnerable would have first dibs. Some 60 million doses of the vaccine are expected to available by the end of the year if both Moderna and Pfizer are granted authorisation, and they could ramp the output to one billion vaccines in 2021, more than enough for 330 million Americans with enough for exports.
Moderna’s big advantage is its vaccine does not need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer’s, making it easier to distribute. It says the vaccine it is stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 36 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer’s vaccine has to be shipped and stored at minus 94F and it can be stored for up to five days at standard fridge temperature.
Moderna’s breakthrough came even as the Covid-19 cases surged across the US, logging one million cases just this past week to take infections past 11 million cases, amid allegations the Trump administration had abdicated responsibility to prevent rise in cases.
But between incessant bogus claims that he has won the election (or will win it through legal maneuvering and judicial intervention), US President took credit for the breakthrough, tweeting, “Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great ‘historians’, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!”
Democratic critics pointed out that Trump had not attended coronavirus task force meetings in weeks and had simply placed faith in a vaccine that was still months from being available to the general public. In fact, the outgoing US President said his administration will not mandate another national closure even as Covid-19 cases surged in Middle-America, where the Trump base disdains masks and social distancing that experts say should continue till vaccines become widely and easily available.
On Sunday, Trump’s new coronavirus advisor Dr Scott Atlas inflamed the country’s already fraught politics by urging the people of Michigan to “rise up” against new restrictions imposed by the state to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases. Coming a little over a month after the FBI stopped a right-wing militia plot to kidnap the state’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer — a Democrat who has mandated lockdowns — the call led to charges from Democrats that the outgoing Trump administration is trying to foment an violent insurrection.
Trump meanwhile continued to thrash about on Twitter with spurious claims that have been rejected by courts and even many GOP officials. Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson joined the ranks of Republicans — dubbed traitors by Trump backers — to acknowledge that Trump has lost the election, saying “I expect Joe Biden to be next President of the United States.”
Former President Barack Obama and Trump former National Security Adviser John Bolton were among those who counseled the defeated President to bow out gracefully.
“The fact is that we’ve seen litigation in all the key battleground states and it has failed consistently. I think as every day goes by, it’s clearer and clearer there isn’t any evidence. But if the Republican voters are only hearing Donald Trump‘s misrepresentations, it’s not surprising that they believe it,” Bolton said on NBC, earning an instant rebuke from Trump.
“John Bolton was one of the dumbest people in government that I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ to work with. A sullen, dull and quiet guy, he added nothing to National Security except, ‘Gee, let’s go to war.’ Also, illegally released much Classified Information. A real dope!” Trump tweeted.
On Monday morning, Trump was still in denial about the election loss that even his formerly favorite Fox News appears to have reconciled to tweeting, “The Radical Left Democrats, working with their partner, the Fake News Media, are trying to STEAL this Election. We won’t let them!”
“Try watching @OANN. Really GREAT!” he advised his followers, referring them to a right-wing propaganda network that is an echo chamber for conspiracy theories.
Source From : Times Of India
