Trump: COVID-19 vaccine ‘great discoveries’ “took place on my watch!”

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• On Monday, President Donald Trump touted Moderna’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, saying that this development happened during his “watch.”
• President-elect Joe Biden has also sent his congratulations to Moderna scientists through Twitter.
• Moderna’s announcement came a week after Pfizer and BioNTech declared that their vaccines’ effectiveness was at 90 percent.

President Donald Trump on Monday lauded Moderna shortly after it announced that the COVID-19 vaccine it developed was 94.5 percent effective based on the interim analysis from the final stage of the clinical trial.

In his tweet, Trump said that this development should never be forgotten.

“For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!” he wrote on Monday.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also commended Moderna’s vaccine, being part of the president’s “vision” during his interview with Fox & Friends on Monday.

“This is really a historic day,” he said.

“More good news today from #OperationWarpSpeed: The Moderna/NIH vaccine candidate is now the second vaccine to show the potential for very high efficacy in Phase 3 trials,” Azar also tweeted, adding that this is a “stunning result of President Trump’s leadership.”

In May, the Trump administration launched Operation Warp Speed, a collaborative movement between the federal government and private pharmaceuticals to develop and provide COVID-19 vaccines and other drugs. Azar noted that Warp Speed allocated over $ 2 billion for the Moderna vaccine.

President-elect Joe Biden sent her congratulations to Moderna scientists on Monday via Twitter.

“Today’s news of a second vaccine is further reason to feel hopeful. What was true with the first vaccine remains true with the second: we are still months away. Until then, Americans need to continue to practice social-distancing and mask-wearing to get the virus under control,” he said.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel announced on Monday that the company’s vaccine displayed a game-changing record in ongoing researches with regard to safety.

“People who did got (sic) our vaccine did not get any severe disease, which is of course a gamechanger,” Bancel told Fox’s ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Monday.

According to Bancel, if they will be granted emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, Moderna will immediately work with the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prioritize giving of vaccines to high-risk individuals.

The vaccine’s cost is expected to be priced at around $32 to $37 per dose, which was noted by Bancel. Larger volumes would likely have lower prices.

In his NBC’s TODAY Show on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Moderna vaccine data are both “striking” and “impressive,” as its potency “foretells an impact on this outbreak.”

The Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical’s good news follows Pfizer and BioNTech last week’s announcement of their vaccines’ 90 percent effectiveness against the virus.

Source: Fox News