Moderna study finds COVID-19 vaccine 90 percent effective six months after dose

Moderna announced on Tuesday that their coronavirus vaccine was 90 percent effective six months after a person receives their second dose.

“Vaccine efficacy starting two weeks following the second dose and based on the updated adjudicated cases remains consistent with prior updates, including greater than 90% against all cases of COVID-19, and greater than 95% against severe cases of COVID-19,” the company announced.

Moderna is working for its vaccine to be fully approved by the U.S. as it is only under emergency authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration.

“The Moderna team continues to make important progress with our COVID-19 Vaccine,” Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said. “The new preclinical data on our variant-specific vaccine candidates give us confidence that we can proactively address emerging variants.”

The study includes data from 900 coronavirus cases with over 100 of the cases being severe.

Along with the updated efficacy of the vaccine, Moderna is currently working on its second phase for testing in adolescents. 

There are around 3,000 minors ages 12 to 17 fully enrolled in Moderna’s trial and the company is working on enrolling children from 6 months to 11 years old. 

The company is aiming to fully enroll 6,750 healthy pediatric participants in the U.S. and Canada.

The news of Moderna’s success comes as the FDA recommended the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be paused due to concerns of blood clots.