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Coronavirus pandemic
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Coronavirus: US says working to authorise Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine fast

  • Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said regulatory authorisation should come within days
  • Pfizer has asked that the two-dose vaccine be approved for use in people aged 16 to 85

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US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Photo: Bloomberg
Reuters

The US Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it was working rapidly to issue an emergency use authorisation for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, with the first Americans set to be immunised as early as Monday or Tuesday.

US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said regulatory authorisation should come within days and the federal government would work with the company to get the vaccine shipped out.

A panel of outside advisers to the FDA on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to endorse emergency use of the vaccine, paving the way for the agency to authorise the shot for a country that has lost more than 285,000 lives to Covid-19.

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Coronavirus vaccine: ‘Go for it’ says 90-year-old UK grandmother after getting first Pfizer shot

Pfizer has asked that the two-dose vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, be approved for use in people aged 16 to 85.

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The agency has also notified the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed so that they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution, it said in a statement.

The vaccine, which was shown to be 95 per cent effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial, is already approved in Britain, and people there began receiving the shots on Tuesday.

Bahrain and Canada have also authorised the vaccine, and Ottawa expects to start inoculations next week.
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