Moderna: We’ll Know Soon if COVID Vaccine Works

Sept. 18, 2020 — Moderna says it should know by sometime in November whether its coronavirus vaccine is effective, its CEO said Thursday.

Stephane Bancel also told CNBC that the company — the first drug firm to conduct human clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. — could have enough late-stage trial data by October to evaluate its efficacy, but said that’s unlikely, CBS News reported.

Along with Moderna’s vaccine, there are six others in final Phase 3 testing that involves large-scale human tests.

“If the infection rate in the country were to slow down in the next weeks, (the vaccine) could potentially be pushed out in a worst-case scenario in December,” Bancel told CNBC, CBS News reported.

On Wednesday, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told Congress a vaccine wouldn’t be widely available until the second or third quarter of next year.

Redfield also said a mask could be even more effective protection than a vaccine for people who don’t have an immunity response from the vaccine, CBS News reported.

A “face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine,” Redfield said. “… If I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine’s not going to protect me. This face mask will.”