[ad_1]
IIn the United States, the corona vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Biontech is about to be approved: the panel of experts responsible for the US Agency for Medicines, the FDA, has voted in favor of emergency approval of the vaccine. In a meeting Thursday, advisers recommended the use of the vaccine. The committee vote is not binding. However, the FDA generally follows the Commission’s proposals. This means that emergency approval could take place in a short time.
Most experts concluded that the vaccine was safe and effective for use by people over the age of 16: 17 participants had voted in favor, 4 against and one abstained, it was announced after a meeting Thursday.
The FDA is expected to give the vaccine emergency approval on Saturday, the New York Times reports, citing people closely related to the agency. However, at the last minute, legal or bureaucratic requirements could cause emergency approval to be postponed until Sunday.
The FDA said Tuesday that it classified the vaccine as safe and effective. On Wednesday, the US Department of Health announced that it would use the Biontech vaccine in hospitals and nursing homes beginning early next week.
The first shipment of 6.4 million cans will leave warehouses within 24 hours of FDA approval, he said. However, this launch of the first vaccine is just the beginning of a complex month-long distribution process coordinated by federal and local health authorities, as well as major hospitals and pharmacy chains.
Several months before mass vaccination
Mass vaccines are not expected for the majority of the population until spring. President-elect Joe Biden will be responsible for this and will take office on January 20.
The United States has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other country. Almost 300,000 have died so far. On Wednesday alone, 3,124 people died in one day from a virus infection, as Johns Hopkins University recorded in its data. That is more people than died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At that time, 2,977 people lost their lives.
The FDA panel that made the recommendation Thursday is conducting some kind of scientific trial. The data were analyzed and debated in a public hearing. Usually hardly anyone cares. But thousands logged live to YouTube for the corona vaccination session. “The American public demands and deserves a rigorous, complete and independent review of the data,” said Doran Fink of the FDA. Scientists at the agency have been working for weeks to make sure of that.
The Pfizer and Biontech vaccine has already been approved in Great Britain and Canada, among others. The European Medicines Agency wants to make a decision shortly before the turn of the year. The next promising vaccine is that of the American manufacturer Moderna, which will be decided in the EU in January. In the United States, that should happen in December. Studies have shown that both vaccines are more than 90 percent effective.
First vaccines in Great Britain
In the UK, vaccines for Pfizer’s preparation started this week. Reports of allergic reactions in two patients are currently being examined there. In addition to these concerns, American experts argued on Thursday, among other things, that data was still lacking on whether the vaccine would also prevent the asymptomatic spread of the virus. Pfizer needs to provide more answers, said a participant, Patrick Moore of the University of Pittsburgh.
The Biontech vaccine is based on what is known as mRNA technology. Unlike conventional vaccines, the pathogen or parts of the pathogen are not injected, but rather the genetic blueprint of the pathogen is passed on, so that the body produces the antigen on its own and develops an immune response.
