GREEN LIGHT

No Safety Concerns: FDA Scientists Pave Way for Pfizer Vaccine Approval

Latest data analyses show it starts providing strong protection against COVID-19 within about 10 days of the first dose—even sooner than Pfizer had previously announced.

Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in the United States in a set of papers published Tuesday morning. The latest data analyses from the agency say that they have found no serious safety concerns related to the vaccine, that it works well regardless of race, weight, or age, and that it starts providing strong protection against COVID-19 within about 10 days of the first dose. That’s even sooner than Pfizer had previously announced—though it’s unclear how long that effect would last if a second dose wasn’t given. On Thursday, the FDA’s advisory panel will discuss the documents before voting on whether to approve the vaccine, according to The New York Times.