Introduction of the First COVID-19 Vaccines

In December 2020, the first mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna received emergency use authorization from the U.S. FDA — on December 11 and December 18, respectively. These vaccines, developed in under a year, utilized messenger RNA technology refined over decades of research to prompt the body to produce spike proteins triggering an immune response against SARS-CoV-2. Clinical trials reported efficacy rates of 95% (Pfizer-BioNTech) and 94.1% (Moderna), exceeding the FDA's 50% minimum threshold.