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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - MAY 08: A view of Moderna headquarters on May 08, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Moderna was given FDA approval to continue to phase 2 of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine trials with 600 participants

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s advisory committee has endorsed the country's second COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna Recommended by FDA

The independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee deliberated 20-0 with one abstention to support mRNA-1273, a vaccine made in cooperation with the US government by Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna.

According to Dr. Steven Pergam, a committee member and infectious disease and vaccine expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, there is no doubt in his mind as it appears the advantages outweigh the risks from what he had witnessed, reported USA Today.

"What a remarkable scientific achievement this is. To go from having a sequence of a virus in January to having two vaccines available in December is a remarkable achievement," added Dr. James Hildreth, a committee member, immunologist, and president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.

This paved the way for the shot to be added to the United States inoculation campaign.

The FDA is expected to act in accordance with the recommendation for the vaccine from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, reported Star Advertiser.

The FDA panel detected that the safety and efficacy of the Moderna vaccine outweigh the susceptibility for use in people who are aged 18 and older. This marks the penultimate step in the approval process. 

Officials from the agency will now deliberate whether to bestow emergency use authorization (EUA) based on the committee's findings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced nearly 310,000 fatalities in the United States. The news of the Moderna vaccine's endorsement came as California became the epicenter of the outbreak in the nation, posting in the past 48 hours over 100,000 new confirmed cases and marking a new daily death record.

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