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U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said during a stop in Texas Monday that a vaccine against COVID-19 could be ready as soon as the end of this year or early 2021. But he isn’t saying when Americans might be able to get it. (Sept. 28)

AP Domestic

Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine appears to create as strong an immune response in older people as it does in younger adults. That’s a positive sign as many vaccines don’t work as well in the elderly.

A small study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine elicited an immune system response almost as strong in people over 56 as in adults between the ages of 18 and 55.

“This is very promising but it’s also somewhat surprising,” said David Dowling, an immunologist and professor at Harvard Medical School, who studies vaccines.

Older people are at higher risk