Here's why the just-approved Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is better than Pfizer's for 'rural hospitals and smaller providers'

Breaking news: The FDA has approved Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use:

BREAKING: FDA approves second Covid vaccine for emergency use as it clears Moderna’s for U.S. distributionhttps://t.co/pEKY1ukYDE

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) December 19, 2020

This IS fantastic news:

Congratulations, the Moderna vaccine is now available!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020

Yes, this is the one Dolly Parton invested in:

#BREAKING: Moderna’s #COVID19 vaccine, which @DollyParton helped to fund, wins backing from U.S. expert panel, paving way for final FDA decision on emergency use.

— Josh Breslow (@JoshBreslowWKRN) December 17, 2020

And one of the main advantages of the Moderna vaccine over Pfizer’s is that the Moderna one is easier to store and transport:

One of the differences in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is transport/ storage steps.

Pfizer's needs a special freezer to keep the vaccine at -94 degrees.

Moderna's vaccine can be kept in a regular freezer at -4 degrees. @6News

— Madisen Keavy (@madisenkeavy) December 19, 2020

This will make Moderna’s vaccine more attractive to “rural hospitals and smaller providers”:

The Moderna vaccine is different.

It doesn’t require ultra-cold storage, just regular freezer storage.

That means it can ship in batches of 100.

While supplies are still scarce, this makes the Moderna vaccine more well-suited for rural hospitals and smaller providers.

— Sen. Jeff Jackson (@JeffJacksonNC) December 18, 2020

Moderna also has been working with this technology longer than Pfizer:

Very similar, both modRNA based. A difference will be the specific lipid nanoparticules for packaging, & exact mod for the mRNA, that’s why Moderna’s doesn’t need extra cold storage — they’d already made ~10 other modRNA vaccines prior to covid & had a different technology ready.

— Trish Zornio (@trish_zornio) December 18, 2020

More on the differences between the two here:

The @fda approves @moderna_tx @NIH COVID19 vaccine.
???????
?18 & up
?2 doses, 4 weeks apart
?-20° storage
?30K trial participants
?94.5% effective

??????
?16 & up
?2 doses taken 3 weeks
?-70° storage
?43K trial participants
?95% effective
MORE @FOX59 pic.twitter.com/Q3m4ZFTB2m

— Beairshelle Edmé (@newsladyB) December 19, 2020

But it doesn’t make sense to mix the two:

You can't get one dose of Pfizer and then, several weeks later, take a shot of Moderna. The vaccines use different nucleic acid constructs, dosages, dosing intervals, storage & handling requirements, & lipid formulations. You want to boost the immune system with the same vaccine.

— Matt McCarthy (@DrMattMcCarthy) December 19, 2020

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