90% efficacy against covid and 95% against severe forms of the disease. These are the results displayed by the American company Moderna for its anti-covid vaccine, in several new results published on April 13. These data come from a phase 3 clinical trial involving more than 30,000 people in the United States.

The Moderna vaccine is based, like the Pfizer vaccine, on messenger RNA technology. For these two vaccines, the majority of side effects are not serious : these are mainly flu-like syndromes.

As of April 16, Moderna and Pfizer will be available to people over 60 and anyone under 55 with risk factors for severe forms of covid.

Read also: Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines: what makes them different?

Efficiency that remains high

The new efficiency revealed by Moderna is down slightly from that of 94.1% announced in December, but remains largely sufficient. As a reminder, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a 50% efficiency threshold for anti-covid vaccines. Indeed, this disease is considered to be “so serious“that if the vaccine was only 50% effective, its use will still be interesting,” notes the WHO.

Moderna available “in town” in Moselle

For the time being, this vaccine, which can be stored for several months at -20 ° C, then between 2 and 8 ° C for 30 days, is only available in vaccination centers, like the Pfizer vaccine. But the Ministry of Health is preparing to launch a new experiment in Moselle, reveals France Info.

The Moderna vaccine will be available there “in town”, from pharmacists, general practitioners and private nurses. It could thus take the place of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the High Authority of Health advises against in this department. The reason: the South African variant, resistant to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which represents 35% of cases of Moselle contamination. If this experiment is successful, it could be generalized to the whole country by at least June.

Seven million doses expected in France

As of April 12, Moderna says it has delivered 132 million doses of its anti-Covid vaccine across the planet. And in France ? In all, nearly 1.11 million doses of Moderna have been administered in France since January 2021.

By the summer, the Directorate General of Health expects more deliveries, with nearly seven million doses by Moderna.