US FDA advisers back authorising Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine

A panel of outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to endorse emergency use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, paving the way for the agency to authorize the shot for a nation that has lost more than 285,000 lives to Covid-19.

According to a Reuters report, the FDA is widely expected to authorize emergency use in days. The distribution and inoculations of the vaccine in the United States are expected to begin almost immediately thereafter.

The committee voted 17-4 that the known benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of taking the shot for individuals 16 and older, with 1 member of the panel abstaining.

“This is a historic moment,” Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health Care, who was not on the advisory panel, said after the vote. He called the vaccine from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech “the best solution to get us out of our current situation and help us save lives.”