Moderna Official: Israel to be Amongst First Countries to Receive Vaccine

By: A7 Staff

A senior official at the Moderna pharmaceutical company said Israel would be one of the first nations worldwide to receive its vaccine for the coronavirus after the company announced that the vaccine was effective in 94.5% of cases, Channel 12 News reported.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to bring the Moderna vaccine to Israel as well as other vaccines which are developed to combat the coronavirus.

“Already in June, I, along with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, instructed that an agreement be signed with Moderna for the supply of vaccines. Today, Moderna informed us that its vaccine has an efficacy of 94.5%. This is excellent news for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“My goal is to bring as many vaccines as possible, from as many sources as possible, to as many citizens as possible – and as soon as possible,” the prime minister added.

US-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna claimed Monday that its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective against the coronavirus – a claim which, if confirmed, would make the vaccine more effective than a vaccine developed by rival company Pfizer.

“These are obviously very exciting results,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to CNN. “It’s just as good as it gets — 94.5% is truly outstanding.”

Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech claimed that their coronavirus vaccine is 90% effective – that is, after two doses were administered, the group exposed to the vaccine had 90% fewer symptomatic cases of the coronavirus as compared to the control group.

The Moderna tests included 30,000 participants, half of whom were given a placebo, and half of whom were given the vaccine. Of the control group, 90 became infected with the coronavirus, including 11 with severe cases of the virus.

In the vaccinated group, just five people were infected with coronavirus, and none developed serious cases of the illness.

Both Moderna and Pfizer have signed deals to supply Israel with coronavirus vaccines, once the testing phase has been completed and the vaccines approved for general use.

In October, it was reported that the Israeli chief medical officer of Moderna predicted the Jewish state would receive its COVID-19 vaccine before June 2021.

“We don’t yet have a precise timetable. It will be in the first half of 2021. But when exactly, in which months, we can’t yet [say],” Dr. Tal Zacks told the Ynet news site, adding that he “can’t promise” the shots would be distributed in Israel in January or February.

                 (INN & Times of Israel)