FDA advisory panel gives green light to Pfizer vaccine
A panel of experts has formally recommended that the US Food and Drug Administration endorse emergency use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
The recommendation on Thursday paves the way for the agency to authorize the shot for the US that has been the hardest-hit country by COVID-19.
In a 17-4 vote, the committee decided that the known benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of taking the shot for individuals aged 16 and older. One member of the panel abstained.
The FDA’s vaccine advisory panel is composed of independent scientific experts, infectious disease doctors and statisticians.
The FDA is likely to authorize emergency use in days with distribution and inoculations in the United States being expected to begin almost immediately thereafter.
“The final decision about whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use will be made by FDA’s career officials,” the agency said in a statement.
“This is a historic moment,” Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health Care, who was not on the advisory panel, said following the vote.
He called the vaccine from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech “the best solution to get us out of our current situation and help us save lives.”
“With the high efficacy and good safety profile shown for our vaccine, and the pandemic essentially out of control, vaccine introduction is an urgent need,” Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said at the meeting.
People in Bahrain and Britain have received the Pfizer vaccine since it was authorized on Dec. 2. Canada approved it on Wednesday.
This comes after the US’ daily death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 3,000 for the first time on Wednesday, prompting pleas for Americans to scale back Christmas plans.
COVID-19 deaths reached 3,253 on Wednesday, pushing up the US total since the beginning of the pandemic to 289,740, with a record 106,219 people hospitalized.
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