FWIW:






Moderna Executives Say Covid-19 Vaccine Should Offer a Year of Protection

By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Jan. 12, 2021 9:27 am ET


Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines are currently being distributed across the U.S.


Moderna’s chief medical officer said Monday that the company expects that its Covid-19 vaccine should provide protection from the virus for a year or more.

Speaking Monday afternoon at a health-care investor conference hosted by J.P. Morgan, Moderna (ticker: MRNA) Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks said that the company will be tracking early recipients of the vaccine to try to determine how long the initial two-dose regimen will be effective.

“From what we’ve seen so far, I think our expectation is that the vaccination should last you at least a year,” Zaks said. “We have to follow people until we see the year. We’ll try and boost some of them to see how well a boost works.”

Zaks was discussing what appears to be a growing consensus among experts: That patients will need to receive Covid-19 vaccinations for years.

Speaking at the same industry conference on Monday, BioNTech (BNTX) CEO Ugur Sahin said that he believes there is an “extremely high likelihood” that Covid-19 will become endemic, meaning it will persist in the population over the long term.

“This provides a huge medical need, not only for this year and the next years, but also for the coming decade,” Sahin said.


Those vaccines are already big business for the companies. Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said at the Monday panel that the company has signed agreements to deliver $11.7 billion worth of its Covid-19 vaccine in 2021. The company has said it expects to make 600 million doses this year, and could make up to a billion doses.

Moderna shares climbed 4% on Monday, and were up another 0.5% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, while S&P 500 futures were nearly flat. The stock is up more than 480% over the past twelve months.

Bancel said that he aims to get his company’s Covid-19 vaccine authorized for adolescents aged 12 to 17 by this summer. The vaccine is currently authorized for patients aged 18 and above, unlike the vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer (PFE), which is authorized for patients aged 16 and above. Bancel said that data for younger children isn’t expected until 2022.

Moderna’s executives reiterated that they don’t expect the variants of the Covid-19 virus now circulating in the United Kingdom to resist their vaccine. But Zaks said that the company could quickly create a vaccine to protect against any variant that did.

“Should such a variant emerge, I think our technology is very well suited to actually rapidly deploy a vaccine based on the new variant,” Zaks said. “But so far in the data that we’ve seen to date, we don’t see a need for it.”

And while multiple Covid-19 vaccines could enter the market in coming months, patients likely won’t be locked into a single drugmaker’s product after receiving their initial doses. Zaks said that messenger RNA-based vaccines could be used as a booster even for patients whose initial doses had come from other types of vaccines.

Currently only messenger RNA-based Covid-19 vaccines are authorized in the U.S., but vaccines using other technologies, including Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) vaccine, could be available soon.


https://www.barrons.com/articles/mo...d-offer-a-year-of-protection-51610461642

Local hospital has gone from 45 to 25 covid patients in the last month...….Exactly the opposite of what the media said would happen after Christmas.

Very small part of the population here have even had the initial shot of vaccine.

How can there be any immunity when people are getting the chinese virus right after they get the shot?

I have received both of the shots of the Pfizer vaccine.
The day after the second round, I was dead tired, but well worth it to me!
Jim

What was well worth it?

These things have not even been proven to work. We know nothing of the long term effects.

The virus has over a 99% recovery rate.

For me it was worth it yes.
I am an EMT and a minister.
So I am exposed to people suffering from Covid, and if it helps me to either not get covid, or not be contagious as long, and have less chance of giving it to some of the elderly that I minister to, then yes, for me it is worth it. I can only make the decision for me, others will have to make the decision for themselves.
Jim

Lets see, in Pfizer's phase three trial they had 43,661 participants. 28 days after the first injection there were 170 active cases of the virus. 162 of those cases were in the group receiving placebo while only 8 cases were in the group that received the vaccine.

That seems like a pretty significant difference to me. I would say it works.

We don't know about any long term effects but we do know there are serious long term effect from the virus.

As far as being 99.9% recovery rate........that is not true for different demographics

Ken your last statement hit the nail on the head. I'm not taking the vaccine but I do think if one is over 65 it would be a darn good idea

X2 I think there are certain groups that possibly would not benefit from the vaccine

I suggest if you really want to now how the vaccines work to read what the CDC website has to say on the subject. A lot of foolishness being put forth here.

I looked at the long term side effects of Covid.

At 68 I already have many of them. Lol

Peeler,does that surprise you?
Tom

You think you will have the choice? I bet I won't if I want to fly. Or, maybe if I want to visit my mom in the home.

Completely respect people's right to choose, but neither myself or any member of my family are taking anything Gates was involved with. That man has very dangerous ideas floating in his crazy head.

Being 70 years old with nearly every issue they reported leaving one at risk was a personal no brainer for me. I was offered the Moderna shot at the VA here in Nebraska yesterday so said "Go For It".
This is a personal decision for everyone. I agree there are many different views but we all need to make the decision for ourselves.
Arm is just a little sore today but I was very tired so a couple of good knaps were in order.
Roy

Roy,been a while,glad to see you are still kicking. I sure have good memories of all the conventions.
Tom

This is not science. This is opinion and it's not even stated as being from case studies (there aren't any at this early point).
It's just flat opinion.
Doesn't make it wrong.
Just means the CEO's opinion isn't science.

The mandatory may be a social issue in the future.
What is it with the vaccine that makes one think they can visit certain people more freely?
That person needs to have had the protection of the vaccine....
Not you.
You're not immune to the virus, or void of being a carrier, because you've had the vaccine.
Studies are emerging that you may still be able to carry the virus even if you've developed antibodies to it based on past occurrence.
https://www.newsmax.com/health/headline/covid-immunity-infection-transmission/2021/01/15/id/1005759/

Because like with any vaccine it takes a while to build up the immunity. It's not like you get the shot and suddenly all is good.
So if you get the shot and get exposed before your body has a chance to develop the antibodies then you can possibly get the virus. It's the same with the flu or any other things you're vaccinated for.


If you look at how troops are vaccinated against stuff before being deployed. They are given the shots a month or more in advance of being shipped out.