WASHINGTON (WCSC) – Sunday marks five years since Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 95.4% effective in its clinical trial.
The company announced on Nov. 16, 2020, a major breakthrough in the effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Data from Moderna was based on the first 95 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the trial’s 30,000 volunteers. It looked at participants who received a placebo and those who actually got the vaccine.
The pandemic was first declared on March 11, 2020, after more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries were detected. The declaration was made by the World Health Organization, also known as WHO.
The Moderna vaccine was the second vaccine in the US to have a high success rate, CNN reported. The week before Moderna announced its vaccine, Pfizer released information on its shot.
The shots were distributed late that year. The vaccine was initially only available for people considered to be in the “highest priority group,” meaning health care workers, the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions.
In July 2021, vaccination mandates were largely enforced by employers. Then, in September of 2021, President Joe Biden announced that the federal government would take steps to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, all federal mandates were lifted when the national emergency was declared to have ended in May of 2023.
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