COVID-19: Moderna Requests Vaccine Authorization / MIS-C Racial Differences / Severe Lung Damage

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD

Take a look at today's COVID-19 news:

Moderna requests vaccine EUA: Moderna on Monday announced that it is filing for FDA emergency use authorization for its mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. The primary efficacy analysis from its phase 3 trial — based on 196 COVID-19 cases among over 30,000 participants — found mRNA-1273 to be 94.1% effective against COVID-19 and 100% effective against severe disease in particular. One COVID-19-related death occurred in a placebo recipient. The company reported that "efficacy was consistent across age, race and ethnicity, and gender demographics." The FDA's vaccine advisory committee is expected to meet on Dec. 17 to discuss mRNA-1273's safety and efficacy data. If the vaccine is authorized, people could start receiving it as early as Dec. 21, the New York Times reports.

MIS-C racial differences: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) related to COVID-19 seems to disproportionately affect Black children, according to an analysis of some 220 cases in New York City. Black children accounted for 34% of these cases — even though they make up just 22% of the city's under-20 population and 20% of the city's youth COVID-19 hospitalizations. Hispanic children, meanwhile, accounted for 30% of the cases — similar to their population distribution. White and Asian/Pacific Islander children were underrepresented among MIS-C cases. Writing in JAMA Network Open, the researchers conclude that "clinicians should be aware of the potential enhanced risk of this emerging syndrome among Black and Hispanic children."

Severe lung damage: Patients with COVID-19 can develop irreversible lung damage like that seen with end-stage pulmonary fibrosis, researchers report in Science Translational Medicine. In an analysis of lung tissue from three COVID-19 patients who received lung transplants and of biopsy specimens from two patients who died from COVID-19, the lungs were found to be free of SARS-CoV-2 — but had sustained extensive injury and fibrosis. The researchers say their observations "suggest that some patients with severe COVID-19 develop fibrotic lung disease for which lung transplantation is their only option for survival."