The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for drugmaker Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech.
This EUA allows distribution of the vaccine to begin immediately in the United States, and some high-risk health care workers will begin receiving their first shot of the two-dose vaccine this week.
The authorization follows an endorsement from the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), composed of independent doctors, scientists and experts.
COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
Prior to the FDA authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, federal officials had planned for 6.4 million doses to be distributed initially, with future shipments following shortly after. As high-risk groups, including health care workers and long-term care residents, begin to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before the end of 2020, it will likely still be months before vaccine distribution reaches the general public.
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