Agencies
Washinton, December 12:
The US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) has granted the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine an emergency use authorisation.
The approval, given on Friday, paves the way for its imminent rollout across the country.
“I am authorising the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19,” Denise Hinton, the agency’s chief scientist wrote in a letter to a Pfizer executive.
President Donald Trump, to this end, said the US would start administering the vaccine “in less than 24 hours.”
“The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours,” Trump said in a televised address released on Twitter.
“Through our partnership with FedEx and UPS, we have already begun shipping the vaccine to every state and zip code in the country,” he said, adding that governors would decide who would receive the shots first in their states.
“We want our senior citizens, health care workers and first responders to be first in line,” said Trump. “This will quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalisations.”
Earlier on Friday, Trump had piled pressure on the US drug regulator to quickly approve the vaccine as America readied to roll out mass immunisations.
The Washington Post reported that the White House told the FDA chief Stephen Hahn to submit his resignation if the agency does not clear the vaccine by the end of the day.
The country hopes to have 20 million people inoculated this month.
The government also said Friday that it is buying 100 million more doses of the Moderna vaccine candidate, amid reports the government passed on the opportunity to secure more supply of the Pfizer jab.
The purchase brings its total supply of Moderna doses to 200 million, enough to immunize 100 million people with the two-shot regimen, which is yet to be green-lighted by authorities.
The World Health Organisation warned Friday that Christmas celebrations could turn to tears if people fail to keep up their guard against Covid-19 during the festive season.
Britain this week became the first Western country to roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, which Canada, Mexico, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have also approved.
The FDA said the vaccine can be given to people aged 16 and older. Healthcare workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities are expected to be the main recipients of a first round of 2.9 million doses.
The US government has said it will begin distributing the vaccine around the country immediately after FDA authorization, and that the first inoculations would happen early next week.
The FDA authorisation comes at a time when infections, hospitalisations and deaths are soaring to record levels in the United States, which has failed to mount a coordinated effort to slow the spread of the virus. 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.
BioNTech began developing the vaccine in January, using a technology called synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) that had yet to produce an approved product. The technology uses a chemical messenger to instruct cells to make proteins that mimic part of the new coronavirus, which the immune system learns to recognise as an invader. BioNTech struck a development deal with Pfizer in March.
The vaccine comes with complex distribution challenges as it must be shipped and stored at -70 Celsius (-94 F), requiring specialised ultra-cold freezers or supplies of dry ice.
