Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine Get’s Approval, First in The United States
A historic vote today (Thursday, December 10th, 2020) happened today when the final decision was passed 17-4 to approve Pfizer and BioNTech‘s emergency use authorization application for its coronavirus vaccine candidate (BNT162b2).
It is the first Covid-19 vaccine to win an approval in the US. Presently, the vaccine is said to be more than 90% effective. The committee had to decide if the benefits outweigh its risk for use in individuals 16 years of age and older.
Several of the committee members took issues with it being approved for 16 and 17 year olds, while others argued that age group would not be in the first group to receive the vaccine, allotting time to research effects it may have.
Although this is a major milestone, it is not the final answer as the vote will be reviewed by the officials with the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. That organization will either confirm or deny their decision. The U.S. follows behind Canada, the United Kingdom and Bahrain to approve the emergency use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine.
Just to break down the numbers of all current vaccines in trial, here they are: 197 vaccines are in a pre-clinical phase (lab tests), 26 are in phase one (small group tests), 15 are in phase two (large group tests), 9 are in phase three (mass group tests) and none have been officially approved.
We are especially curious to see if our users plan on taking this vaccine (or any other). Let us know in the comments below.