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Get ready Miss Rona, Australia is about to get 25 million Moderna vaccines

AS

by Alex Stefanovic

Image: Twitter

Image: Twitter

AS

by Alex Stefanovic

Moderna will join the trio of vaccine’s Australia is using to rid citizens of COVID-19.

If TGA approved, ‘Moderna’ will be fighting the COVID-19 virus, alongside the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, sometime this year.

The prospect of this is looking promising, as the vaccine has already been approved in 43 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Miss Rona, your days are numbered.

Moderna Vaccine
Image: Bangkok Post

After recently signing a deal with the Australian Government, pharmaceutical conglomerate, Moderna will introduce 25 million doses of its vaccine to Australian citizens – aiming for 9 million doses by December 2021. The total amount of covid-19 vaccines distributed across Australia has now reached 2.8 million.

Pfizer stands as Australia’s preferred vaccine for citizens under the age of 50. This followed the complications that arose with the AstraZeneca vaccine, where blood clotting became a potential side effect.

Currently, Australia has no internal manufacturing of the covid-19 vaccine and is dependent on imports.

However, according to Health Minister, Greg Hunt, there will be discussions on the possibility of producing mRNA vaccine’s, like Pfizer and Moderna, in Australia. This will decrease the nation’s reliance on imports.

The idea of introducing another vaccine appears ideal, as covid-19 has mutated and created new, highly infectious variants.

It seems logical to introduce variant vaccines and booster shots to combat the virus. Booster shots are ‘additional shots of the original vaccine’ that aim to prevent vaccine immunity by creating more antibodies that can work against the virus.

The covid-vaccines are otherwise known as mRNA vaccines, which teach our bodies how to make a protein that can fight diseases inside our bodies. Therefore, booster shots appear essential in providing our bodies with the correct tools to combat Miss Rona.

A study mentioned in Forbes, found that the Moderna vaccine and booster shots have been successful in ‘neutralizing at least two of the new variants’.

However, the longevity of protection that this vaccine offers is not as effective as hoped. Knowledge regarding when the Moderna boosters will be available to the public is still uncertain.

Additional studies are required to ensure that booster shots are safe in the long term. However, the lack of studies surrounding booster shots, although promising, has not discouraged some from doubling up:

 

But, sceptics are still poking fun at this method’s apparent effectiveness:

As for the future of COVID vaccines, some believe the ideal way to treat it will be similar to the ‘seasonal flu’. Gavi, a public-private global health partnership, forecasts that new doses of the covid vaccine will be required every year due to virus-to-vaccine immunity and the tendency of influenza viruses to mutate.

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