During California’s new Stay-at-Home order, I wanted to share a patient’s experience who was in the Moderna COVID19 vaccine study. Our ICU capacity has dropped below the state’s 15 percent threshold, to 12.5 percent which triggered the new restrictions.
Moderna developed a coronavirus vaccine known as mRNA-1273. A clinical trial demonstrated that the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94.1 percent in preventing Covid-19.
None of the infected patients who had received the vaccine developed severe COVID-19, while 11 (12%) of those who received the placebo did.
How does mRNA vaccine work?
Vaccines train the immune system to recognize the disease-causing part of a virus. Vaccines traditionally contain either weakened viruses or purified signature proteins of the virus.
But an mRNA vaccine is different, because rather than having the viral protein injected, a person receives genetic material — mRNA — that encodes the viral protein. When these genetic instructions are injected into the upper arm, the muscle cells translate them to make the viral protein directly in the body.
This approach mimics what the SARS-CoV-2 does in nature — but the vaccine mRNA codes only for the critical fragment of the viral protein. This gives the immune system a preview of what the real virus looks like without causing disease. This preview gives the immune system time to design powerful antibodies that can neutralize the real virus if the individual is ever infected.
Thank you Marc Cedric Smith for sharing your experience with us, and God bless you for doing this to help bring the vaccine safely to all of us.
