US administers 1st doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

Both President Donald Trump
and President-elect Joe Biden
praised the initial vaccine
administrations on their
respective social media pages.

The rollout comes less than
a week after the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration
authorized the vaccine for
emergency use for Americans
over 16. The order from the
FDA led to the pharmaceutical
company shipping 2.9 million
doses to 636 sites across the
country.

Pfizer, which produced the
vaccine alongside German
company BioNTech, began
shipping the doses from its
Michigan warehouse Sunday
directly to those sites, which
were pre-selected by governors
and local health officials.

Pfizer said it would roll out a
second batch of 2.9 million
doses shortly after the first
batch. The U.S. government
is opting to keep 500,000
doses in reserve to address
any shipping or distribution
mishaps.

The vaccine, which requires
two doses for full inoculation,
began distribution in the
United Kingdom last week.
The vaccine is the first in the
country to use the genetic
technology mRNA instead
of viral components. Pfizer
claimed its trials showed

the vaccine was 95% effective
at preventing symptomatic
COVID-19. The FDA will hold
a hearing on Dec. 17 with
Moderna, which also
developed an mRNAbased vaccine, before
possibly giving emergency
authorization for its
deployment.

Moderna said its clinical trials
showed the vaccine was 94%
effective at preventing the
coronavirus and trial patients
who had the vaccine had
elevated antibodies in their
system three months after the
vaccines were administered.
According to the World Health
Organization, there are 52
COVID-19 vaccines in human
trials, and 162 vaccines in
preclinical development.

The vaccine developments
come as the U.S. is in the midst
of the deadliest period of the
pandemic, according to health
data. America leads the world
with over 16 million cases
and close to 300,000 deaths,
according to Johns Hopkins
University’s Coronavirus
Resource Center.

The seven-day averages of
new daily cases, 211,494,
hospitalizations, 106,656, and
deaths, 2,427, were at record
highs on Dec. 13, according to
health data from the COVID
Tracking Project.