The Food and Drug Administration has approved Pfizer and BioEntech's Corona virus vaccine for emergency use in US .
The approval marks a turning point in a pandemic that has claimed more than 294,000 American lives and 1.5 million lives globally.
Earlier this week, the one-day COVID-19 death total topped 3,000, while
hospital intensive care units across the country are nearing capacity,
threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems .
The vaccine was set to roll out of Pfizer’s principal manufacturing facilities in Michigan within hours and could be administered to the first, highest-priority recipients by the end of Monday .
The US follows other countries, including the UK, Canada. Mexico and Bahrain which have also authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for broader public use .
The FDA clearance marks a record-breaking time frame for a process that normally takes about a decade. The fastest-ever vaccine development, for mumps, took more than four years and was licensed in 1967. Pfizer and BioNTech announced plans to develop a coronavirus vaccine in March and submitted an application to the FDA for emergency authorization in November.
The FDA is also considering a vaccine by Moderna, which could receive emergency authorisation as soon as next week .
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