Hi, I'm Dan Premack and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by the American

Beverage Association. Today's Monday, November 16th. Stocks are up, Walmart's global ambitions

are down, and we're focused on today's huge vaccine news. Earlier this morning, Massachusetts-based biotech Moderna reported a 94.5% efficacy for its COVID-19 vaccine,

adding that so far it's only seen mild side effects, like headaches and injection site

soreness that resolved on their own.

Now, this builds on last week's,

quote, more than 90% efficacy news from Pfizer and is objectively awesome news. Remember, the FDA

originally set a vaccine efficacy floor at just 50%. So what we're seeing now is not only the fastest

vaccine development in history, but also

results that far exceed initial expectations.

A few things to know.

First, Moderna's vaccine doesn't require the same ultra-cold storage conditions as does the

Pfizer one.

Instead, it can be kept in standard freezer conditions for six months and in regular refrigerator

conditions for 30 days. That's a big boost for ease of distribution. Two, both vaccines

are focused on the same so-called spike protein, which is likely a big reason why the efficacy

results were so similar and why each vaccine requires two doses per patient.

Three, Moderna expects to file for emergency use authorization from the FDA within the next

couple weeks.

It could have around 20 million doses available by year end, and in a different announcement

this morning, Tony Fauci added that vaccine distribution for the general population could

begin by this coming April.

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