THE FDA approved Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday for emergency use, a day after scientists and medical experts on the federal agency’s advisory panel green lighted the treatment.
An initial shipment of 2.9million doses of the life-saving shot will be sent around the United States over the next week, according to three people with knowledge of the decision who spoke with the New York Times.
A similar amount is to be held in reserve for those recipients’ second dose.
Health care workers and nursing home residents will be the first to receive the vaccines, which will have to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.
But US authorities don’t expect to have enough shot for the general population before spring, and emergency use means the vaccine is still experimental.
The move sets off what will be the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history – but it also has global ramifications because it’s a role model to many other countries facing the same decision.
The authorization came hours after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told FDA commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn that he’d lose his job if the emergency approval wasn’t done the same day, according to a senior Trump administration official.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar confirmed the news on Friday as Donald Trump urged the FDA to “get the dam [sic] vaccines out now” after the jab was approved in the UK, Bahrain, and Canada.
Speaking on the Fox Business show “Mornings with Maria,” Azar confirmed the agency will grant emergency-use authorization for the vaccine within days.
He said: “At this point, it is really a matter of working out some final details.
“Within the next couple of days, it ought to come out and we’ll start having Pfizer ship that vaccine to where governors have told us.”
He said “it’s quite realistic by end of February into March” that governors would ramp up their “general vaccination efforts.”
Azar explained that this meant people could go to “your Kroger, your CVS, your Walgreens” and get the coronavirus shot “very much like you get your flu vaccine.”
According to Azar, the Trump administration is confident there will be “enough vaccine for every American who wants to get vaccinated” and the New York Times reported that approval could be given by the end of today.
Earlier today, a federal panel of external experts voted in favor of the FDA granting emergency use authorization to the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
This paved the way for emergency authorization and distribution as Trump demanded FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn get a move on and approve it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield upheld the vote of an independent panel last week for front-line health care workers and nursing home residents will be the first to get it.
Using FedEx and UPS, Pfizer will drop-ship vaccinations to 636 sites selected by state governors for the first phase of distribution – and this could all get underway by early next week, Azar said.
Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are also in the final stages of development for their Covid-19 shots and the FDA is slated to approve Moderna’s vaccine later in December.
Azar revealed that five other pharmaceutical companies and six manufacturers are in talks with the White House for an estimated 800 million doses.
He said Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca could start distributing theirs’ as early as January as cases surge around the country.
Earlier today, Trump compared the FDA to an “old, slow turtle” as he called on the agency to get the approval done.
“While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic @US_FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle,” Trump raged.
“Get the dam [sic] vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn @SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!”
Daily deaths topped 3,000 this week and the CDC predicted that 12,600 to 23,400 new #COVID19 deaths will be reported during the week ending January 2.
“These forecasts predict 332,000 to 362,000 total Covid-19 deaths in the United States by January,” the federal agency said.
Coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 290,000 Americans – more deaths than WWII – and has pummeled the US economy .
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