PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Shipments of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are being delivered across the country, following emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Like the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine's efficacy rating is over 90%. Also like the Pfizer vaccine, it does need to be refrigerated. However, it doesn't need dry ice like Pfizer's drug.
At the Olive Branch, Mississippi distribution center, cases of it have been moved from the freezer to the loading dock.
"I think the supply and getting things to the right place at the right time is going to be paradoxically more of a challenge than making this vaccine," said Dr. Arnold Monto, a member of the FDA advisory panel that approved the vaccine.
"I would suspect that this is gonna work in preventing asymptomatic infections, but it may not stop it totally," he added. "The FDA set the bar at 50% efficacy in preventing asymptomatic disease with COVID. And here we are getting vaccines that are more than 90% effective, so we are very lucky that this worked out the way it did."
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However, Monto admitted there have been some reactions too: about 30% of people don't feel right a day or day and half after getting the shot.
He also said there have been some side effects, including a slight chance of Bell's palsy.
"One case versus three cases in the vaccinated versus the placebo," he explained. "The problem is that this is something that occurs naturally. Sometimes there's one per hundred thousand, one per million cases. And we won't really know if there is any effect until a lot more vaccines are given but that tells us that it's very, very infrequent even if it does exist."
There is still work to be done, according to Monto.
"There are lots of studies that are being carried out that are going to identify if we start seeing the vaccine not working that well, and then we gotta develop boosters," he said.
Monto added it's not yet clear whether we'll need a booster shot for COVID-19.