Modern Inc.
MRNA 2.68%
said Tuesday that it will offer its new Covid-19 vaccine to its own employees, contractors and board members in a move that, according to the company, provides additional protection to workers involved in the manufacture and delivery of the vaccine.
The company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 1,200 employees, said the small amount of vaccine needed for the program does not depend on the millions of doses Moderna has dedicated to the U.S. government.
Moderna said it will provide about 20 million doses for use in the US by the end of this month, and by the middle of 2021 a total of about 200 million. The federal government has purchased the doses and is overseeing their distribution.
Immunizations using Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine began earlier this month. WSJ’s Betsy McKay reports on how injections are distributed. Photo: Paul Sancya / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
The company’s new policy seems to allow the vaccination of people who are not in the high priority groups identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC said the first people to receive the limited initial amount of available vaccine doses are health workers and residents of long-term care facilities, followed by people aged 75 and older and certain essential workers such as police officers and manufacturing workers.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for Moderna said the policy would help ensure ‘continued operations and vaccine production in the face of a pandemic’. He said that due to Moderna’s size, we have critical staff in all parts of our organization who are responding to the pandemic. “
Pfizer Inc.,
which had approximately 88,000 employees worldwide since February, follows a different approach with the vaccine it delivers with partner BioNTech SE.
It is planned to vaccinate employees as they qualify according to CDC guidelines, with the first group expected to be the company’s most important workers, including those in manufacturing roles, a company spokesman said. The company has “no plans to prioritize the vaccination of our executives or board members over other high-risk groups,” the spokesman said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Moderna’s vaccine in adults this month after a large study showed it to be very effective against Covid-19 disease. Millions of doses have so far been distributed to websites in the United States. Last week, federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, receiving the first dose of Modner vaccine.
The company said that under its new policy, it would also vaccinate adults from their workers’ households to reduce the risk of absenteeism and disruption due to a Covid-19 infection of a family member. The company makes vaccinations voluntarily and confidentially and covers the costs.
Moderna said they have notified appropriate health authorities of the program and that they will monitor and report information on the vaccinations as required by FDA authorization.
Modern officials said earlier that they had taken steps to reduce the risk of the virus to workers, including that they needed personal protective equipment for people who had to work in the facilities, and that some workers had to work from home.
—Jared S. Hopkins contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Loftus by [email protected]
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