First, the good news! The U.S. biotech company, Moderna, has reported that its RNAbased vaccine is more than 94 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19. Moderna released figures suggesting that its vaccine is likely to prevent severe COVID-19 infections, an aspect which was not clear from the other developers’ announcements.

  Moderna was one of the first developers of a Covid-19 vaccine. (See the article ‘The search for a vaccine’ published in Gyan Vitaranam issue dated July15 - August 14, 2020). The company began a phase III trial in July, and has enrolled roughly 30,000 people. The trial continues. Its vaccine has RNA (a genetic molecule) instructions for our cells to produce a modified version of the coronavirus spike protein, the immune system’s key target.

  Earlier another pharma major Pfizer and BioNTech reported greater than 90 per cent efficacy on the basis of 94 cases, whereas Russia’s Sputnik....