Moderna Confirms Supply Agreement With S’pore for COVID-19 Vaccine Which Can Be Stored Easier

By
Ashley Seek
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There’ve been a lot of talks about COVID-19 vaccines as of late.

Especially the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which already has been used for mass vaccination in the UK.

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has approved the vaccine for pandemic use in Singapore, and the first shipment will arrive here by the end of this month.

Which is going to be free for Singaporeans and long-term residents.

Companies like Singapore Airlines have been on standby to ship over available vaccines.

And recently, another vaccine has been confirmed to be coming over here too.

Moderna Confirms Supply Agreement With S’pore for COVID-19 Vaccine Which Can Be Stored Easier

We have now reached the end of 2020, and it seems that humans may finally have an upper hand over the virus.

Previously, Moderna was in discussion with the HSA about bringing their vaccine, mRNA-1273, here.

And as of 15 Dec, the supply agreement has been confirmed. 

But you might be wondering how effective the vaccine is.

Well, a Phase 3 study was done in the US across 30,000 people.

It showed a 94% efficacy rate against COVID-19 and is 100% successful against the more serious cases.

So yeah, pretty darn good.

The vaccine is also administered in two parts, with the first and second shot being 28 days apart from each other.

It stays stable up to 12 hours at room temperature and up to 30 days at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, which is the normal refrigerator temperature.

If stored at -20 degrees Celsius, the vaccine remains stable for up to six months.

Which is quite a bit more efficient than Pfizer’s vaccine.

Theirs must be shipped and stored at -70 °C, and can only be stored for up to five days at standard refrigerator temperatures.

Seems like a pretty good investment so far.

But of course, remember: the Moderna vaccine hasn’t been used in any country yet, and the HSA hasn’t approved it as of time of writing.

Though I won’t be surprised if you and I were to have this vaccine instead next year.

Mostly Minor Side Effects

Still, the most pressing question in everyone’s mind would be how safe is this vaccine?

This is a pretty valid concern for most of us, especially since two people who took the Pfizer vaccine in the UK had severe reactions to it.

However, they allegedly suffered from anaphylaxis and one possibly suffered a possible allergic reaction.

Moderna has stated that so far, no major issues have arisen from their vaccine.

The most common were fatigue, injection site redness and pain, headache and body aches, which increased after the second dose.

Moderna also mentioned that the effects were short-lived.

So in this aspect, it also beats out Pfizer’s based on the data.

Starting from 2021, the company hopes to deliver 500 million to 1 billion doses of the vaccine globally.

PM Lee states that he expects other vaccines to arrive in the coming months too

He says that vaccines would be available for everyone by the third quarter of 2021 if all goes well.

So maybe, small talks in 2021 would be, “Eh, you take Pfizer one or Moderna one ah?”

Featured Image: rafapress / Shutterstock.com

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Ashley Seek
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