The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday licensed Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine for adults 18 and older, providing an additional option to get vaccinated in the US, in hopes of helping to convince the reluctant. The vaccine produced by this American company is already available in dozens of other countries.
In the United States, on the other hand, only three anti-Covid vaccines were currently authorized: those of messenger RNA from Pfizer and Moderna, and that of Johnson & Johnson. But access to the latter has been limited due to an increased risk of severe thrombosis.
90% effective
Given in two doses three weeks apart, it uses a more traditional technique than messenger RNA, which has been the target of many conspiracy theories, but has been shown to be very safe.
The Novavax vaccine contains a component of the virus that triggers an immune response, similar to the pertussis, meningococcal meningitis, and hepatitis B vaccines.
In clinical trials, conducted on several thousand people in the United States and Mexico, it was found to be 90% effective against symptomatic cases of Covid-19. A figure that, however, must be put into perspective, since these tests were carried out before the Delta and Omicron variants.
Source: BFM TV
