Moderna said Tuesday that its novel coronavirus vaccine will provide immunity to the coronavirus for one year, according to Reuters.
What’s happening:
Moderna said immunity from the COVID-19 vaccine will last at least one year.
- The company said it’s confident the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology it used for the vaccine can stop variants that have popped up in recent weeks, too, Reuters reports.
- The vaccine, mRNA-1273, teaches the immune system to recognize and defeat the coronavirus. So as long as the spike proteins of the virus don’t change, the vaccine should be enough to neutralize it.
Moderna said it expects to deliver between 600 million and 1 billion does of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, according to Reuters.
What it might mean for the future
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The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that herd immunity likely won’t happen in 2021, CNN reports. This could raise questions about what could happen once Moderna’s vaccine wears off for those who get it in 2021.
- “The vaccines are going to come,” WHO’s chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said. “They are going to go to all countries, but meanwhile we mustn’t forget that there are measures that work and ... it’s really important to remind people, both governments as well as individuals, on the responsibilities and the measures that we continue to need to practice ... for the next ... well for the rest of this year at least,” she said.