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US officials revealed that because the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is urgently licensed, the American public will begin receiving the vaccine starting Monday.
General Gustave Perna, who oversees the distribution, said the first batch of 3 million doses of vaccine will be shipped to the states this weekend.
The vaccine is 95% effective against the new coronavirus and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers the vaccine to be safe.
In the United States, the number of deaths related to the new coronavirus reached 3309 in a single day on Saturday (December 12).
The data comes from the Johns Hopkins University website and is the highest number of deaths recorded in a single day anywhere in the world.
Since November, the number of deaths from the new coronavirus in the United States has risen sharply.
The United States Food and Drug Administration has been under tremendous pressure from the Trump administration. After authorizing the emergency use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on Friday, the agency said the move was a “major milestone” in the global pandemic.
The UK has already started using the same vaccine for mass vaccination.
At a press conference on Saturday, General Peña stated that “in the next 24 hours” the vaccine will be loaded into transport containers and distributed to various places.
He said: “145 vaccination sites in every state are expected to receive vaccinations on Monday, 425 on Tuesday, and the last 66 on Wednesday.” He added that the initial delivery of Pfizer / BioNTech’s new corona vaccine will be completed next week, covering approximately 3 million. people.
Peña told reporters that he is “100% sure” that the vaccine needed to defeat the enemy of the new corona virus will be delivered safely.
However, he also said that although much progress has been made in the last week, “we have not completed the task until all Americans can receive the vaccine.”
Pfizer vaccines have already received regulatory approvals in the UK, Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. As in these countries, the US Department of Health is expected to prioritize providing the first vaccinations to medical workers and nursing home residents.
In addition to the priority groups, other Americans can start getting vaccinated in January next year and are generally expected to get vaccinated in April.
How does the FDA comment on this vaccine?
“The first COVID-19 vaccine cleared by the FDA for emergency use is an important milestone for this devastating epidemic that affects many families in the United States and around the world,” said Stephen Hahn, director of the agency.
He stated that authorization for emergency use only after an “open and transparent review process” can ensure that the vaccine meets “strict and scientific FDA standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality.”
On Thursday, a 23-member panel of medical experts considered that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks and therefore recommended that the FDA authorize emergency use.
The FDA stated that emergency use is not the same as full approval, which requires Pfizer to submit a separate application to obtain it.
US media reports stated that Hahn had previously been told to approve the emergency use of the vaccine by Friday, or he would be fired.
However, Hahn said these reports were “not true” and emphasized that the agency did not sacrifice security in the test.
How does the vaccine work?
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is the first COVID-19 vaccine to show effective results in the later stages of its testing process.
It is a new type of vaccine called an mRNA vaccine. This new vaccine uses a small piece of genetic code from the new coronavirus to guide the body against the virus and build immunity.
“The vaccine contains a small piece of mRNA from the new coronavirus, which instructs cells in the human body to produce the virus’s unique ‘ip’ protein,” the FDA said.
“When a person receives this vaccine, their body will produce a copy of the spike protein, which will not cause disease, but will trigger a defensive response from the immune system to produce an immune response against the new coronavirus.”
The vaccine was injected in two doses, 21 days apart, and the second dose was a booster. Immunity begins to take effect after the first dose, and the full effect is reached seven days after the second dose.
However, the vaccine must be stored at an ultra-low temperature, which brings difficulties in logistics. Pfizer said it will use special shipping containers made of dry ice to transport the frozen vaccine directly to the vaccination site.
The pharmaceutical company agreed to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to the United States by March.
Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are also jointly developing a second vaccine and will provide 200 million doses by June. However, this vaccine is still seeking US regulatory approval.