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Chief Medical Officer at Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine not yet proven to stop spread of virus

Written by Hamnah Khalid ·  1 min read >

Moderna has been working on its coronavirus vaccine for quite some time now. The Chief Medical Officer at the company, now, has said that there isn’t enough evidence that the vaccine in question stops the virus from being transiently passed from person to person.

Dr. Tal Zaks, the CMO at Moderna has said that while the vaccine is showing promising signs of preventing people from getting sick, it hasn’t been proven to prevent the virus from spreading.

I think we need to be careful,” said Dr Zaks, in an interview with Axios. He also mentioned that when people start getting vaccinated, they should not over-interpret the results.

When we start the deployment of this vaccine, we will not have sufficient concrete data to prove that this vaccine reduces transmission.”

He also let it be known that he believed the vaccine reduces transmission because of the “science” and the evidence to back up that claim, but he feels that the common use of the vaccine should not allow people to go back to the way things were just yet.

Do I believe that it reduces transmission? Absolutely yes, and I say this because of the science,” he added. “But absent proof, I think it’s important that we don’t change behaviors solely on the basis of vaccination.”

Dr Zaks’ comment tells the world that even though drug companies are working tirelessly to give the them a vaccine to this deadly virus and that trials show promising results, it’s important to know that this virus will not just disappear with the use of the vaccine. It will take time and a lot more care.

The statement from Dr Zaks comes almost a week after Moderna revealed that their experimental version of the COVID-19 vaccine was nearly 95 percent effective in their clinical trials.