Covid-19. FDA approves the use of the Pfizer vaccine in the United States. Trump says “vaccination starts in less than 24 hours”
US agency approves the use of the Pfizer vaccine against covid-19 in the United States. Donald Trump speaks of a “miracle” and says that “vaccination starts in less than 24 hours”
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the United States’ drug regulatory agency, approved tonight the release of emergency use of the vaccine against covid-19 produced by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech. So far, only four countries have approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine: the United Kingdom, Canada, Bahrain, and Mexico.
In its decision, the FDA understood that the Pfizer immunizer “meets the legal criteria for emission in the USA” and that “all the available data provides clear evidence that the vaccine can be effective in preventing covid-19”.
Shortly after the association’s announcement, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a statement on his Twitter account, extolling the decision. “Our country has achieved a medical miracle,” he said.
The FDA has classified the approval as a significant milestone in combating the disease. “FDA authorization for the emergency use of the first covid-19 vaccine is a significant milestone in the fight against this devastating pandemic that has affected so many families in the United States and around the world,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn , in a statement published on the agency’s website.
“Today the action follows an open and transparent review process that included contributions from independent scientific and public health experts and a thorough assessment by the agency’s career scientists to ensure that this vaccine met the FDA’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality necessary to support the use of emergency authorization. The tireless work to develop a new vaccine to prevent this new, serious and life-threatening disease in an accelerated period of time after its emergence is a true testament to scientific innovation and public-private collaboration around the world ”, he added, then.
On Twitter, President Donald Trump – who had pushed the agency earlier to approve by the end of the day by threatening FDA chief Stephen Hahn with resignation – posted a video celebrating the news of the vaccine’s release.
In the video, Trump thanked all the scientists who made it possible to distribute the vaccine in the United States today and guaranteed that the first doses will be applied in less than 24 hours.
“The first vaccine will be given in less than 24 hours. Through our partnership with FedEx and UPS, we have already started sending the vaccine to all states and postal codes in the country, ”he said. “We want our elderly, health professionals and first responders to be first in line. This will quickly and drastically reduce deaths and hospitalizations ”.
The USA has more than 15.8 million infected
The recommendation for emergency use in the United States comes two days after the country recorded 3,034 deaths due to covid-19 in the last 24 hours alone, according to data compiled by the monitoring page at Johns Hopkins University.
This was the first time that the United States recorded more than 3,000 deaths in a single day, according to American TV networks CNN and NBC News. The daily average is 2,230 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
So far, the United States is by far the country most affected by the covid-19 pandemic in the world: there were 15,820,714 cases of the new coronavirus and 294,715 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins. Then, in the number of cases, India (with 9,796,769 cases and 142,186 deaths) and Brazil (with 6,836,313 cases and 180,453 deaths, appear, according to data from the consortium of press vehicles of which UOL is part).
According to CNN, local authorities remain concerned about the number of covid-19 patients admitted and the ability of hospitals to find sufficient rooms. Last Wednesday, the state of California broke records in cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions. The state has only about 1,500 ICU beds available.
The top health officials in the government of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, drew up a schedule earlier this week that plans to distribute immunizations against the new coronavirus to up to 24 million people by mid-January.
By mid-March, “most of the highly susceptible population, about 100 million people” should be vaccinated, according to Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed - the Trump administration’s vaccine development program.
In the United States, an alert will accompany the vaccine, announced Marion Gruber, of the FDA: It will not be recommended for people with allergies to any of its ingredients.
Committee member Paul Offit emphasized the need to reassure the tens of millions of people who are allergic to eggs or peanuts.
Effectiveness is 95%
The FDA had already confirmed earlier this week that the experimental vaccine for covid-19 developed by the American pharmaceutical company was 95% effective after the second dose, according to the results of phase 3 of the clinical tests.
In an analysis released today, the FDA stressed that the companies provided adequate information to “guarantee the quality and consistency of the vaccine for the authorization of the product in the USA”.
The agency also confirmed that the immunizer worked regardless of the volunteer’s age, weight or race. Pfizer BioNTech applied for authorization for emergency use of the product in the USA on November 20.
