The European Commission has approved a second contract with Moderna to secure an additional 300 million vaccine doses
Yesterday (17th February) the European Commission approved a second contract with pharmaceutical company Moderna for an additional purchase of 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The contract allows for the purchase of 150 million doses in 2021 and an option to purchase an additional 150 million in 2022.
It also grants the possibility to donate the vaccine to lower and middle-income countries or to re-direct it to other European countries.
This new deal will ensure Europe has access to 2.6 billion doses in total to protect its citizens against COVID-19.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said:
“Today, we are securing 300 million additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Moderna, which is already used for vaccination in the European Union. This brings us closer to our major objective: ensure that all Europeans have access to safe and effective vaccines as quickly as possible. With a portfolio of up to 2.6 billion doses, we will be able to provide vaccines not just to our citizens, but to our neighbours and partners as well.”
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said:
“With this new contract with Moderna, we are adding another 300 million doses of an authorised safe and effective vaccine. It marks another step towards our objective of providing swift access to safe and effective vaccinations to citizens in Europe and beyond over the course of this year. The contract is important not only for the short term needs of the EU, but also for our future work to limit the rapid spread of new variants.”
What is the Moderna vaccine?
The Moderna vaccine is based on messenger RNA (mRNA), which transfers instructions from DNA to the cells’ protein making machinery to produce harmless amounts of the virus.
When a person receives the vaccine, their cells will read the genetic instructions and create a spike protein, a protein on the outer surface of the virus which it uses to enter the body’s cells and cause disease.
The human body will then treat this protein as foreign and produce antibodies and T cells to build an immune response to prevent or fight the disease.
I got my first shot on March 16th of Moderna and 3 weeks to the day that I got so sick I thought it was the flu. My doctor gave me nausea medicine so I could take my other medication and not have pain in my stomach. I now think it was a side effect of the first shot but I didn’t know side effects could happen 3 weeks later. I just got the 2nd shot on April 13th and I am wondering if I should prepare myself for another side effect.
To make yourself feel better because you will, after taking the second shot feel flu like symptoms. This is because your body already has some of Moderna left inside, so getting the second shot will boost the amount up.
In layman’s terms, you already have the 1st shot which is 0.5mg , this shot staying in your system. Along comes second shot, another 0.5mg. So when this is added to your body you now have a total of 1.000 mg in your body.
Now what? Feeling like you have something like the flue migraine, somewhat shaky, all of the unknowns mixed together in one pot, l would be saying “go away please l don’t want you to end up getting what I have. I will keep in touch! After a few days it goes away! I thought I was finally feeling better. That sure didn’t last now what?? If you feel like a flu has come back it’s okay. However if it is that much worse, see your Dr and if he feels it may not be the same then you will need to get checked again! If you trust your Dr. then tell him exactly how you feel