Moderna’s CEO did not say in Davos that the company made anti-covid vaccines in 2019

Users on social networks claim that Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, told a World Economic Forum panel that the company produced 100,000 doses of its covid-19 vaccine in 2019, before the start of the pandemic. This is false. Bancel was referring to all the injections produced by the US pharmaceutical company, the businessman confirmed to AFP, noting that the covid-19 vaccine was not developed until 2020.

“Proof that it was a PLANDEMIC. The CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, admits that the company had already produced 100,000 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 in 2019. It officially started in February 2020. But you keep swallowing TV… and vote, vote a lot Shhhh”ensures one of the publications, which have been shared around 800 times on Twitter (1, 2) and Facebook (1, 2, 3) from February 7, 2023.

The content also circulated in English.

The posts emerged almost a month after the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, during which political leaders, CEOs and celebrities discussed everything from climate change to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The non-governmental organization and its programming are frequent target of conspiracy theories.

“Totally wrong”

bench He participated in a panel held on January 18 on the state of the covid-19 pandemic. But the posts reviewed, which fuel the unfounded theory that the pandemic was planned, misrepresent what he said about Moderna’s vaccine production.

“This is totally wrong”Bancel told AFP in reaction to the posts posted online, in an email dated February 9. “I said that in terms of volume we did in total, with all our products in 2019, around 100,000 doses. (…) And that, with the covid, we had to increase our production to a billion doses. That was a big challenge.”he added.

Below are his statements in the context of the panel in which he participated at the World Economic Forum:

Sasha Vakulina, panel presenter: “How is the development, adoption and scaling up of the vaccine going in regards to the different variants and sub-variants? Because this is one of the big concerns, as we’re all here now and we’re discussing and we understand the context and this is a big issue.”.

Bench: “Clear. Good morning and thank you for inviting me to this panel. The great news for 2020 is that today we have manufacturing capacity. When the pandemic struck, Moderna manufactured 100,000 doses in 2019 for the entire year. And I remember walking into the Moderna factory at odd hours and saying, ‘How can we make a billion doses next year?’ They looked at me a little strange and said: ‘What?’ And I told them: ‘Yes, we have to manufacture a billion doses next year, there is going to be a pandemic.’ And now we have plants in the United States and Switzerland. This summer we have shown that we are capable of adapting to variations very quickly”.

This was not the first time that Bancel has addressed the challenge of increasing Moderna’s vaccine production during the pandemic.

In a act Held in November 2021 by the American Heart Association, the CEO stated that Moderna was on track to manufacture 800 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine in 2021, compared to 100,000 doses of all vaccines in 2019. In April 2022 he made similar statements in the Boston College Executive Directors Club.

Sasha Vakulina, host of the panel and editor of Euronews, was contacted by AFP for additional information but declined to comment.

The vaccine was developed in 2020

Moderna began to develop its covid-19 vaccine not long after the virus was first identified, in late 2019.

“We obtained the genetic sequence of covid-19, which was the beginning of our work, on January 10, 2020”Bancel declared to AFP.

In February 2020, Moderna began to manufacture a potential messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for testing. The company I had been working for years in the mRNA technologywhich instructs cells on how to build a part of a virus’s protein to develop immunity.

Clinical trials of Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine started in March 2020, after the World Health Organization declare a global pandemic. The US Food and Drug Administration first authorized the injection for emergency use in December 2020, with full approval being issued in January 2022.

AFP Factual has opened a communication channel with its Spanish-speaking readers in the United States. If you have a query about suspicious content, you can write to us at this whatsapp line.