US Fully Approves Pfizer Vaccine, 1st Covid19 Vaccine to Get Full Approval
- Following complete approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States of America, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will now be known as Comirnaty
- It is the first coronavirus vaccine to be given this kind of authorisation yet and is said to be effective in protecting against Covid-19
- The vaccine has been approved for administration to people 16 and older and is still granted emergency authorisation for people between 12 and 15
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WASHINGTON - The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first of its kind Covid-19 vaccine to receive complete authorisation for use in the prevention and protection against Covid disease. The US Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that the vaccine can be safely given to individuals 16 and older.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was previously been given emergency use authorisation by the FDA; the complete authorisation of the use of the vaccine is seen as a turning point, according to the BBC.
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The authorisation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may help reduce vaccine hesitancy that has been seen in many people in different parts of the world.
"This is a pivotal moment for our country in the fight against the pandemic," said Janet Woodcock, acting FDA Commissioner.
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The vaccine, which will now go by the name Comirnaty, is said to have a 91% efficiency in the protection against the coronavirus. After a clinical trial involving more than 40 000 individuals, the vaccine was given full approval, indicating that it was both effective and safe for people, according to EWN.
Pain and swelling at the site of injection, as well as fevers, headaches, and chills, are the most commonly observed side effects in people who have been given the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The vaccine has also been granted emergency use authorisation for young children and teenagers between the ages of 12 and 15.
How Covid-19 vaccines were developed within a year, advanced by years of research
Briefly News previously reported that one of the major points of scepticism raised about the coronavirus vaccine comes mainly from how quickly it was developed in comparison to other vaccines in the past.
This has led some people to think that the speed at which the vaccine has been developed means that the science behind the vaccine may not be as reliable.
In previous cases, vaccination approval took up to 15 years and this included the completion of clinical trials, however, the coronavirus vaccine was approved within a year, according to Biospace. With the exception of the Covid-19 vaccine, the mumps vaccine was previously the fastest vaccine to be developed and was created within four years.
Funding helped speed up the process of coronavirus vaccine
Despite the coronavirus heavily impacting the lives of the global population being one of the major reasons for the drive that led to a vaccine being developed so quickly, funding from governments and corporations made the coronavirus vaccine possible.
According to Shabir Madhi, a professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), vaccine clinical trials take as long as they do because they require large amounts of funding to actually happen and in most cases, it takes years for scientists to raise those funds.
Source: Briefly News
