Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Thursday that Pfizer will be filing an application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine on Friday. “Pfizer’s partner, BioNTech, has announced that tomorrow they intend to file for emergency use authorization at the FDA,” said Azar during the White House’s public coronavirus task force meeting.
Earlier this week the company Moderna said its preliminary trial data showed its vaccine has a 94.5% effective rate. On Wednesday, Pfizer also went public saying it would be submitting an application to the FDA “within days” after its data analysis concluded the vaccine was highly effective and safe. On Thursday, Fox News reported the two companies have reached nearly 95% effectiveness in Phase 3 clinical trials.
Azar told CNBC on Monday that between the two companies, roughly 40 million doses of the vaccine will be available by the end of the year, “enough to inoculate about 20 million people.” Vice President Mike Pence added his affirmation, saying the United States could “literally be a few short weeks away from a vaccine being available to the most vulnerable.”
With news of a vaccine availability approaching, Americans have varying concerns. White House Coronavirus Task Force’s Dr. Anthony Fauci has called on citizens to “put to rest” theories that an FDA-approved coronavirus vaccine might be unsafe. “we need to put to rest any concept that this was rushed in any inappropriate way. This is really solid” said Fauci.
“The process of the speed did not compromise at all safety nor did it compromise scientific integrity…it was a reflection of the extraordinary scientific advances in these types of vaccines which allowed us to do things in months that actually took years before so I really want to settle that concern that people have about that” added Fauci.
