The FDA has approved Pfizer’s long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the US. The decision comes only days after the United Kingdom and Canada approved the vaccine as well.
“I don’t think you would have found a scientist on this planet that would have predicted this 11 months ago,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who advises the FDA.
At the start of the pandemic we were being told it would take years to create a vaccine, if a vaccine was even possible. But as a result of Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership started by the president, the US is breaking records for vaccine creation and approval timelines. And it doesn’t end there. Moderna’s vaccine is presumed to be getting federal approval as early as next week and Johnson & Johnson is in the final testing stages of its vaccine.
With FDA approval finally granted, the rollout will start within days. Pfizer has said that it would have about 25 million doses of the vaccine ready by year’s end.
The vaccine is given in 2 shots. One initial shot, and a follow-up shot 3 weeks later. After the second shot, people may experience flu like symptoms, but those should only last a day or so and are nothing to worry about.
“That’s just your immune system working. It’s a good thing,” Offit said.
As of Friday evening, there were 15,702,941 COVID-19 cases in the US and 293,360 deaths.
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