US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for emergency approval in the United States of America on Friday, 11 December. Making the big announcement, Outgoing President Donald Trump said that the first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours, adding that it will be “free for all Americans”.
“The governors decide where the vaccines go and stay and who gets them first. We want our senior citizens, healthcare workers and first respondents to be the first in line,” Trump said.
The announcement comes at a time when the pandemic has claimed the lives of over 3,00,000 Americans in less than a year and wreaked the economy.
Director of FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Dr Peter Marks, said that the available data supports the authorisation of the COVID vaccine as the “potential benefits clearly outweigh its known and potential risks”.
According to a report in CNBC, the government is planning to distribute 2.9 million doses in the next 24 hours, followed by another 2.9 million does after 21 days for people to get their second shot.
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