FDA Gives Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Green Light for Emergency Use

By Paul Riegler on 11 December 2020
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The U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, known as BNT162b2, the green light for emergency use in the United States.

The move follows approvals in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as reported threat by the White House chief of staff to fire the head of the FDA if the vaccine weren’t approved by Friday.

The vaccine is the first drug to prevent Covid-19 to be approved in the United States.

While the United States is the third country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, it is the most populous country to do so.

Approval came after an FDA panel external expert advisory panel for the FDA recommended on Thursday that the agency authorize the use of the Pfizer vaccine.  The advice of the panel, composed of independent scientific experts, infectious disease doctors, and statisticians, is usually but not always followed.

A Pfizer and BioNTech trial involving over 42,000 people found that the vaccine was effective 95% of the time, but there are still multiple unknowns, including how long the vaccine – or any vaccine being developed – will protect someone against the coronavirus.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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