By: Rebecca Petit Posted at 6:00 PM, Dec 16, 2020 and last updated 10:02 AM, Dec 17, 2020
TAMPA, Fla. — The Moderna Coronavirus vaccine is one step closer to being approved by the FDA.
Tampa pediatrician Dr. David Berger has been selected again to speak before the FDA Advisory Committee Thursday.
Last week he presented concerns to the panel regarding the Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer vaccine. Now his focus is on Moderna.
“The presentation that I gave last week, which I’m going to be building on is why people have vaccine hesitancy and what types of things can the FDA and the manufacturer do. What information can they provide to us, in order for people to look at this and maybe their hesitancy will change,” said Dr. Berger.
When comparing data from both vaccines, Dr. Berger says they are remarkably similar. However, he feels more studies need to be done about the side effects.
“We are going to see tens of millions, 20, 30, 40 millions of people getting this vaccine over the next couple of months. We are wanting to collect data as much as possible, so we can see if something is an association or a coincidence,” Dr. Berger said.
Dr. Berger now serves as the Senior Medical Advisor for the vaccine considerations project.
The group collects data about the vaccines and puts it in one centralized location for anyone with concerns to make an educated decision.
“We all have to ask ourselves the most basic question. ‘What is the relative benefit compared to the risk?’ So, the more data that we have, the more doses that are given as people are getting it, we’ll be able to have different information a couple of months from now, for other types of consideration and for people to weigh that pro versus con conversion,” Berger explained.
