All the news on the Pfizer anti Covid vaccine in the United States
The Fda (Food and Drug Administration), the American body that authorizes the marketing of drugs, has given the emergency green light to the Pfizer-BioNthec vaccine against the coronavirus in the US. The facts, the next steps in the United States and the comment of the experts
"I authorize the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19": so the chief of experts of the FDA, Denise Hinton, communicated the decision of the agency to the management of Pfizer. The decision paves the way for the vaccine to be distributed throughout the country.
"We have already begun shipping vaccines to every state," US President Donald Trump said in a video on Twitter, adding that governors will decide who gets the drug first in their states.
COUNTRIES THAT HAVE APPROVED THE PFIZER ANTI COVID VACCINE
The United States is the sixth country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after Great Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE UNITED STATES NOW
With the emergency approval of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine against the coronavirus by the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine from Covid can be administered from Monday to all citizens aged 16 and over. Each person will be given two doses, three to four weeks apart.
THE NEXT STEPS FOR PFIZER'S VACCINE
According to the Wall Street Journal , the health plan predicts that the first to have access to the vaccine this month will be the 21 million health workers and the three million seniors living in assisted residences. From January, if the deadlines are respected, it will be up to a second group of citizens, with a pool of about 87 million people who fall into the category of essential workers, in addition to those of health. The third segment of the population should have access to the vaccine from March: it will concern about 100 million adults with pre-existing high-risk diseases, of which 53 million citizens aged 65 and over. Pfizer plans to distribute approximately 25 million doses by the end of the year, potentially enough for 12.5 million people as the vaccine requires two doses.
THE POST OF SILVESTRI
“This is great news for America, for science, and for all of humanity. From Monday therefore we start with a mission of great logistical difficulty but extraordinary historical importance, with the first three million doses ready for use ". Thus the virologist Guido Silvestri, professor at Emory University in Atlanta, comments on Facebook the green light of the American agency FDA for the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Sars-CoV-2. “And if all goes well, next week it's Moderna's turn ”, he adds.
"At this moment, which I had been predicting for months (" the virus has no hope ", remember?), My biggest thanks goes to the inventors of this vaccine (starting with the great Katalin Kariko and my old friend Drew Weissman) – Silvestri points out – to all the volunteers who participated in the clinical study (including several collaborators and members of my department); and to the doctors, nurses, laboratories and health personnel all who performed the clinical trials (with my Emory in the very first row). Never before, I confess – he concludes – have I felt so proud and happy to have dedicated my life to medicine, science, and the study of viruses and vaccines ”.
THE COMMENT OF GARATTINI
“Well, the FDA's okay for the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has arrived, but the road is still long and many sacrifices will be needed to avoid the deaths that are still high. This news doesn't have to be a break from lines. Otherwise we would have wasted so much effort ”. Silvio Garattini, pharmacologist and president of the Mario Negri Institute in Milan highlights this at Adnkronos Salute.
“It is quite clear that this vaccine is certainly effective in decreasing the presence of the Covid-19 disease – adds Garattini – We should understand how long the presence of antibodies and the immune response last. Side effects are also known and appear to be those already present for other vaccines as well. As the British government has already established, we will also need 24 months monitoring of vaccination ”.
According to the pharmacologist, “it is now important for Italy to be ready because, let's not forget, this is a very sensitive vaccine and must be stored at very low temperatures. It also needs several manipulations before being administered – he concludes – so the doctors and nurses who will be hired for vaccination will also have to be trained on this ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/vaccino-pfizer-covid/ on Sat, 12 Dec 2020 10:21:41 +0000.