Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine roll-out begins in the US
US public has started receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after it was approved for emergency use by the FDA.
The US public has started to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on December 14, after it was authorised for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA’s decision follows a regulatory process that involved a panel of independent advisers weighing in on the safety of the vaccine.
Before the announcement, the FDA had come under pressure from the Trump administration to approve the vaccine. But FDA commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn said that “science and data guided the FDA’s decision”.
“We worked quickly based on the urgency of this pandemic, not because of any other external pressure,” Hahn said.
Officials and medical experts hope the vaccine will help get the pandemic in the US under control.
The US Centers for Disease Control says the country’s 21 million healthcare workers should be prioritised, as well as three million elderly Americans living in care homes.
Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s vaccine development programme, said it has prepared for a swift distribution of the vaccine.
This video was edited by Al Jazeera Newsfeed’s Katya Bohdan.