Washington News Bureau

Gauging long term effectiveness of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

WASHINGTON — With the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine under the microscope due to rare blood clots, another vaccine maker, Moderna, is out with encouraging news.

Preliminary data from Phase 3 trials shows Moderna’s vaccine is more than 90% effective for at least six months after vaccination. The vaccine is also more than 95% effective against severe cases of the virus.

The U.S. bought 300 million doses from Moderna and the company said it is still on track to finish that delivery by this summer.

The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, said Tuesday that there’s enough supply of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to inoculate the adult population by the end of July.

“With Moderna, we have actually found that we can actually enable it to be stored in manners that primary care doctors can actually store it in their offices and deliver,” Murthy said.

Moderna announced it hopes to have a booster shot for its COVID-19 vaccine available in the fall.