FDA greenlights vaccine for use in U.S.
U.S. officials gave the green light for use of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday (December 11).
The Food and Drug Administration said late Friday they had authorized the vaccine for emergency use.
It's been shown to be 95% effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial.
The FDA says the vaccine can be given to people 16 and older.
A first round of 2.9 million doses is expected to mainly go to healthcare workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities.
Shortly after the news broke, President Donald Trump declared it a medical miracle.
"The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours. The governors decide where the vaccines will go in their state and who will get them first.
"The United States is the first nation in the world to produce a verifiably safe and effective vaccine. Today's achievement is a reminder of America's unlimited potential when we have the will and the courage to pursue ambitious goals."
U.S. health authorities, shipping services and hospitals stood ready to immediately launch a mass-inoculation campaign.
Both FedEx and UPS planned to ship millions of doses across the country under contract with the federal government.
Millions of Americans could begin getting vaccinated this month, especially if a second vaccine from Moderna is quickly approved.
That's as the pandemic kills record numbers of people in the U.S. nearly 300,000 people have died across the nation since it began.
The government has ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to inoculate 50 million people -through its Operation Warp Speed virus development program and could negotiate for more.
The status of those talks are unclear.
Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb said in a CNBC interview earlier this week the company had offered to sell the U.S. more doses as recently as last month but had been turned down.
The U.S. has also agreed to buy 200 million of Moderna's two-dose vaccines.
