The World initially fell to their knee’s in relief as the first press release on Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine clinical trials was released earlier this week.
“These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection starting with a dose as low as 25 µg,” said
Tal Zaks , M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer atModerna .“When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”[1]
Shortly after this press release was released share prices in Moderna shot up over 27%.
The celebrations soon subsided though as heavy criticism came from the scientific community on the lack of details supplied on the study.
As Statsnews[2] points out:
But was there good reason for so much enthusiasm? Several vaccine experts asked by STAT concluded that, based on the information made available by the Cambridge, Mass.-based company, there’s really no way to know how impressive — or not — the vaccine may be.
While Moderna blitzed the media, it revealed very little information — and most of what it did disclose were words, not data. That’s important: If you ask scientists to read a journal article, they will scour data tables, not corporate statements. With science, numbers speak much louder than words.[2]
But another vital point which the press release failed to emphasize was the large number of serious injuries caused by the vaccine in the clinical trials. 3 of the 15 subjects[1] in the high dose cohort (250 mcg) suffered a “serious adverse event” within 43 days of receiving Moderna’s jab. Thats 20% of the subjects.
The press release stated that the three volunteers developed Grade 3 systemic events, which is defined by the FDA as “Preventing daily activity and requiring medical intervention.”[3]
The excitement really was all down to 8 of the volunteers producing neutralizing antibodies for the virus, which out of 45 people really is not overly impressive anyway. But lets pretend that is impressive for a moment, this stage in producing a coronavirus vaccine has never been the issue, the biggest hurdle to overcome is what happens when a subject comes into contact with the virus itself.
Previous attempts have always ended in disaster as the following video explains:
Let us know what you think about a potential vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, we’d love to hear your thoughts
