Moderna's clinical trial numbers show there's 'no way' Trump can have a vaccine by Election Day

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Moderna's clinical trial numbers show there's 'no way' Trump can have a vaccine by Election Day

Mon, 2020-08-10 19:33 — mike kraft

Moderna's clinical trial numbers show there's 'no way' Trump can have a vaccine by Election Day Contrary to his predictions, President Trump won't have a coronavirus vaccine ready by Election Day, vaccine experts tell CNN after reviewing data from Moderna, the first company to begin its Phase 3 clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent CNN

(CNN)Contrary to his predictions, President Trump won't have a coronavirus vaccine ready by Election Day, vaccine experts tell CNN after reviewing data from Moderna, the first company to begin its Phase 3 clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States.

There's no way. There's just no way," said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist at Baylor College of Medicine and a CNN medical analyst.

Last week President Trump said he was "optimistic" a vaccine would be ready around Election Day on November 3.

"I believe we'll have the vaccine before the end of the year, certainly, but around that date, yes. I think so," Trump said Thursday.

CNN obtained part of an email Moderna sent on Friday to the principal investigators of its vaccine trials. It says 4,536 study subjects have enrolled in the trials.

The trial started the morning of July 27 and intends to enroll 30,000 study subjects. The company has said it's "on track to complete enrollment in September."

Moderna won't make that 30,000 in September if they continue at the rate of the first two weeks, but it's likely the speed of enrollment will ramp up, since as of Friday only 54 of the study's 89 sites were operating, according to the company's email to its researchers.

Moderna's numbers did increase significantly from the first week of the trial to the second week.

Even if Moderna does reach its goal of full enrollment during the month of September, the company still won't have a vaccine on the market by Election Day, infectious disease experts say.

"I don't see how that would be possible," said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccinologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

After Moderna enrolls its subjects and gives them their first shot, they then have to wait 28 days before giving them a second shot....

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