FDA authorizes Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use
12 December 2020
The Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine, the agency announced on Friday night.
Why it matters: It's a major milestone in the U.S. fight against COVID-19, clearing the way for the initial rollout of a vaccine that has been found to be 95% effective with no serious side effects.
What to watch: A Department of Health and Human Services official told Axios that Operation Warp Speed is working with governors to ensure that vaccine distribution begins "within 24 hours" of the FDA's authorization.
- 636 locations equipped with ultra-cold storage capacity across all 50 states will receive about 2.9 million doses in the initial Pfizer shipment, according to Operation Warp Speed officials.
- An equal number will be held for the second dose of the vaccine, which is meant to be administered 21 days later.
- Health care workers and nursing home residents are expected to be the first to receive the vaccine.
Worth noting: An EUA is not a full approval. Rolling out the vaccine is contingent upon companies generating more data needed to support full approval, including ongoing placebo-controlled trials to understand the long-term effects.
The big picture: The U.K. became the first country to grant emergency approval to the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 2, followed by Bahrain and Canada. The FDA will meet later this month consider granting an EUA for Moderna's vaccine, which has been found to be 94.5% effective.
By the numbers: The U.S. is the country with the most confirmed total cases, reporting more than 15 million cases and over 290,000 deaths as of Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Go deeper: Pfizer board member confirms U.S. government turned down offer for more vaccine doses
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.