Icon: enlarge
Cool container for future vaccine doses in a New York clinic: Biontech / Pfizer vaccine must be stored extremely cold
Photo: Mark Lennihan / dpa
With the emergency approval for the corona vaccine from Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer, the long-awaited vaccination campaign can begin in the USA: The vaccine can now be used in people aged 16 and over, the US FDA announced on Friday evening.
FDA chief Stephen Hahn spoke of a "significant milestone in the fight against this devastating pandemic."
The elected US President Donald Trump promised his compatriots the first vaccinations this weekend after approval.
"The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours," announced Trump in a video published on Twitter.
His government has already started shipping the vaccine.
Trump presented its development as a success of his administration: The USA was "the first country in the world" to produce a verifiably safe and effective vaccine.
This is not the case, however, since the US company Pfizer was a partner in the development of the vaccine through the German company Biontech.
The product is also manufactured outside the USA and is even used in some countries.
Approval in the EU is still pending
Pfizer and Biontech filed an application for emergency approval with the FDA last month.
They were the first western manufacturers to publish promising study results and apply for such approval.
An application has also been made to the European Medicines Agency (Ema) for approval of the corona vaccine in the EU, but a decision is still pending.
At the beginning of the month, the British drug supervisory authority granted the Biontech / Pfizer preparation emergency approval.
This made Great Britain the first state in the world to approve the vaccine.
Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico have now also approved the vaccine.
The US has ordered 100 million vaccine doses from Biontech and Pfizer.
In addition, they ordered 100 million more vaccine doses from the US pharmaceutical company Moderna on Friday.
The US government is buying a total of 200 million vaccine doses from Moderna.
Both vaccines require two tips.
The FDA wants to deal with Moderna's application for an emergency approval next Thursday.
According to media reports, the White House is said to have threatened the FDA with urgent emergency approval.
The Washington Post reported that White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had asked Hahn to submit the resignation if the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine was not approved before the end of the day.
The New York Times reported that Meadows had told Hahn that if he did not, Hahn should consider looking for another job.
Hahn spoke in a statement to the US media, however, of "an untrue representation of the phone call with the chief of staff."
The FDA was "encouraged" to quickly process the application from Biontech and Pfizer.
Trump himself increased the pressure on the FDA on Friday.
He criticized the agency as a "big, old, slow turtle."
He wrote on Twitter: "Give the damn vaccines out NOW, Dr.
Rooster.
Stop playing games and start saving lives !!! ”Trump has repeatedly put pressure on the agency in the past to approve corona vaccines and therapies.
He had been sharply criticized for it.
Republican Trump lost the US election on November 3rd to Democrat Joe Biden.
Experts also attribute this to Trump's crisis management in the pandemic, to which Americans have been giving bad marks in surveys for months.
Biden is due to be sworn in on January 20th.
Immediately afterwards, the Democrat wants to start a 100-day plan to fight the corona virus.
Part of the program is to deliver at least 100 million doses of a vaccine within this period.
The pandemic remains out of control in the US.
On Wednesday, the number of deaths in a single day had exceeded 3,000 for the first time.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the number of new infections registered in the United States was more than 200,000 in the past few days.
Icon: The mirror
lov / AFP / dpa
