The claim

Vaccination opponents see the statement by Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel that a vaccine against COVID-19 had already been developed in January 2020 as a supposed confession.

Our conclusion

The fact that a vaccine had been developed in January 2020 was also known at the time and could be read in several press releases and interviews. In addition, the early development of a vaccine does not prove that the corona pandemic was planned. With this logic, all diseases for which there are vaccinations would have to be pandemic.

Many opponents of vaccination are convinced that the corona pandemic is a “plandemic”, i.e. a planned pandemic. The latest alleged evidence of this: The CEO of Moderna is said to have “admitted” live in an interview in Davos that work was already underway on a vaccine against COVID-19 in January 2020, “ before SARS-CoV-2 even had a name .”
But this is absolutely nothing new; there were a lot of press reports about it at the time.

The pointless excitement

In English-speaking countries, for example, DeAnna Lorraine, former Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in 2020, is upset about this:

“BREAKING – Moderna CEO admits in live DAVOS broadcast that they made a vaccine against COVID-19 in January 2020 – before SARS-CoV-2 even had a name!”

Source: Twitter

The alleged confession was then quickly spread in German-speaking countries:

“In Davos, the Moderna boss admitted that research into a corona vaccination had already been carried out in January 2020 (!!). The mRNA injection is the problem that had to be sold to us as a solution. That’s the only reason the pandemic was invented.”

Source: Twitter

“This is interesting: #Moderna was already working on a Covid vaccination in January(!) 2020(!).”

Source: Twitter

In the interview, the CNBC host noted that she and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel last saw each other in January 2020 and she recalled him saying back then that Moderna was working on a vaccination " when COVID-19 was still happening." didn’t exist at all .” Bancel then corrects: “ I think there was no name at that time .”

The full interview can be seen here

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

January 2020: Research on the Moderna vaccine was known

Ärzteblatt : “ Moderna + NIAID (USA): RNA vaccine. NIH's Vaccine Research Center has begun Phase I. “ and “ As the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports, the vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 is being developed together with the biotechnology company Moderna .

Pharmaceutical newspaper : “ The US company Moderna from Cambridge in Massachusetts also announced that it wanted to use its mRNA technology for a coronavirus vaccine. Moderna announced that six phase I studies with mRNA vaccines have already been successfully carried out.

University of California : “ a team of Moderna biologists exactly one hour over a weekend in January 2020 to develop an extraordinarily effective vaccine against a deadly virus that threatens to bring the world to its knees. ” and “ But it wasn’t achieved in that one hour. It was achieved in the two to three decades of work that led to this moment, not just at Moderna , but across the scientific community.

Scientific American : In the interview, Anthony Fauci explains: “ We have already started developing a vaccine. We got the [genetic] sequence from the Chinese. We're working with a company called Moderna to develop a messenger RNA-based platform for a vaccine.

Incidentally, it is not really surprising that they worked closely with Moderna at the time, as since 2009 to imitate the spike protein of the virus in connection with a vaccination against SARS, and Moderna began developing a “platform technology” as early as 2012 to stimulate the production of therapeutic proteins in the cells using mRNA.

Science : “ Scientists are working at record speed to develop new vaccines against coronaviruses.

The Science article also explains why Moderna in particular was so quick to develop. At that time, Moderna already had nine vaccines in clinical trials that use mRNA. One of them is directed against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The team only had to swap out the genetic sequence for the new coronavirus's spike to make the vaccine.

SARS-CoV-2 didn’t have a name yet? But!

In the tweet in which this is claimed, another classic misunderstanding can be found: confusing the virus with the disease. It is claimed that SARS-CoV-2 has not yet had a name. However, that is wrong! The virus was then called 2019-nCoV (nCoV = new Corona Virus ) and was , 2020 because it is similar to the SARS virus, but not identical to it.

But in the interview we talk about COVID-19, that's the name of the disease. Stephane Bancel is right, in fact there was no name for the disease in January 2020. determined by the WHO on February 11, 2020 , at the same time as the new name of the trigger

Conclusion

Rating: FALSE

The spreaders of the video snippet and the supposed excitement are just mocking a fact that has been known for three years: it was known that Moderna had already developed a vaccine in January 2020. There doesn't have to be a pandemic before a vaccine can be developed; the very rapid epidemic spread of a new disease is of course sufficient.

So a sensation or “breaking news”? No! The early development of a vaccine does not prove that the corona pandemic was planned. There are enough vaccines that exist even though a disease is not pandemic.

Additional source:

Snopes
Also interesting: When it comes to health questions, never rely on screenshots shared on social media!
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