In a major sign that the world is nearing to welcome dawn to alleviate the dusk-filled grounds of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has taken a significant leap to counter and defeat the pandemic as the most-affected country has now geared up to unveil what would possibly be a turning point of achieving the cure.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States has authorized the use of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday for emergency use. The development has come at a high time when the US has recorded the death toll of nearly 3,00,000 people, the highest in the world. The first set of inoculations has been expected to be in place in a few days as the country prepares to keep the outbreak under control.
The FDA had granted an emergency use of authorization for the vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, which had shown to be 95% effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial and it is said that the vaccine can be given to people aged 16 and older. According to Reuters, healthcare workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities are expected to be the main recipients of a first round of 2.9 million doses this month.
As the country has taken a major leap in the vaccination drive, the US health authorities, shipping services, hospitals, and pharmacies have been getting ready for the vaccination drive with Pfizer saying that it would start shipping immediately, and state public health systems have been planning to begin shots as early as Monday. Ugur Sahin, the Chief Executive of BioNTech, which jointly created the vaccine, said that the vaccine will help to save lives across the United States and could accelerate a return to normality.
The development of emergency authorization has become crucial as the US has been bracing up for soaring fresh cases across the country with thousands of death per day and the hospitals in the country are overwhelmed with the patients.
The government has been planning to pace up the vaccination drive in the coming weeks and months and the advisory group to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet on Saturday to make crucial recommendations about whether some groups such as pregnant women and 16 years old should be immunized.
The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine was first approved in Britain earlier this month and the residents in the UK had begun receiving the shots on Tuesday while Canada had also authorized the vaccine and is likely to start inoculations next week. As the US has been getting close to unveil the cure for the global pandemic which had become a significant measure for the administration under his controversial presidency, Donald Trump said that the achievement is a reminder of America's unlimited potential.
Taking to Twitter on Friday, Trump had posted a video hailing America's achievement and blamed China for the pandemic. The President said, "The United States is the first nation in the world to produce a verifiably safe and effective vaccine. Today's achievement is a reminder of America's unlimited potential. It will save millions of lives and soon end the pandemic once and for all and I'm proud to say that we have made sure this vaccine will be free for all Americans. The pandemic may have begun in China, but we are ending it right here in America". However, critics had flayed his tactics of blaming China and said that Trump's focus on China was aimed at deflecting attention from his missteps in combating the pandemic.
According to reports, the authorization of emergency use of the vaccine has come after the Trump administration has put intense political pressure on the FDA to give its approval for the vaccine. The Trump administration had accused the agency of being too slow and even threatened to remove FDA Chief Stephen Hahn if he fails to approve the vaccine on Friday.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
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