Royal Caribbean shareholders have started their week on a positive note thanks to excellent COVID-19 vaccine news.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) shares jumped by almost 10% on Monday (it closed up almost 7% at the end of trading) after pharmaceutical company reported its vaccine tests showed 94.5% effectiveness.
The good news spurred all cruise line stocks to spike even before the market opened.
Moderna's results are on top of last week's Pfizer's results that showed its vaccine candidate was more than 90% effective.
Moderna says about 20 million doses will be available in the United States by the end of this year, and have between 500 million a 1 billion doses worldwide in 2021.
The company says it will apply for Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within the coming weeks.
Vaccine results
During Moderna's late-stage trials, 15,000 study participants were given a placebo, which is a shot of saline that has no effect. Over several months, 90 of them developed COVID-19, with 11 developing severe forms of the disease.
Another 15,000 participants were given the vaccine, and only five of them developed COVID-19. None of the five became severely ill.
Moderna says its vaccine did not have any serious side effects. A small percentage of those who received it experienced symptoms such as body aches and headaches.
The vaccine is not only more effective than Pfizer's vaccine, but it can be stored for up to six months when stored at standard freezer temperatures of -4 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the -94 degree temperatures required for the Pfizer vaccine.
Both vaccines are using messenger RNA, or mRNA to produce an immune response in the vaccine.
The mRNA vaccine approach uses genetic material called mRNA to trick cells into producing bits of protein that look like pieces of the virus. The immune system learns to recognize and attack those bits and, in theory, would react fast to any actual infection.
Vaccine potential great news for Royal Caribbean
While the cruise industry's attempt to restart operations does not rely on a vaccine, it certainly will do nothing but help their cause.
Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain spoke on Monday about the "transformational" progress being made on the vaccine front.
"The most at risk Americans will be vaccinated first, and then it will spread throughout our population."
"I noticed that Dr. Fauci said he believes that any American who wants one will be able to get an inoculation by April of next year. That's exciting news."
While it waits for a vaccine, the cruise industry will rely on a multi-faceted approach to mitigate risk by relying on social distancing, reduced ship capacity, and 100% testing of everyone onboard.
