The United Kingdom is plans to start administering the first coronavirus vaccine to the public on Tuesday, making it the first country to roll out the Pfizer
In what some British newspapers are calling "V-Day" or "Vaxit"--playing off the historical "D-Day" and the nation's ongoing "Brexit"--the U.K. is planning to issue roughly 800,000 of the 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot to healthcare workers, those aged over 80 and the workers who care for them through the country's National Health Service (N.H.S.).
"The deployment of this vaccine marks a decisive turning point in the battle with the pandemic," said N.H.S. chief executive Simon Stevens, quoted by Reuters. "N.H.S. staff are proud to be leading the way was the first health service in the world to begin vaccination with this COVID jab."
Last week, the U.K. became the first country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, becoming the first country to do so. The vaccine, which requires two doses to be effective at preventing infection, will be given to citizens about three weeks apart in various locations within the N.H.S. network.
The U.K.'s approval of the vaccine will most likely add pressure to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (F.D.A.) upcoming decision of approving the same shot later this week.
Unsurprisingly, the U.K.'s speedy approval of the vaccine was met with criticism over the nation's approval process. The U.K. stated that its regulatory process for the vaccine was done as a "rolling review," meaning regulators were able to review data for the vaccine in real time as Pfizer-BioNTech researchers conducted their clinical studies. This review process helped regulators access the vaccine's efficacy and safety profile in the shortest amount of time possible.
The United States will be reviewing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine differently. To begin the approval process, the partnering companies submitted their vaccine data to the F.D.A. on Nov. 20. From there, the F.D.A. is set to hold a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, on Thursday Dec. 10. That meeting will determine whether or not the companies have presented enough data for the federal agency to approve the vaccine for emergency use.
The F.D.A. has indicated that it would authorize a vaccine that is safe and at least 50% effective at preventing coronavirus infection. Pfizer-BioNTech have concluded in their final analysis of the pair's late-stage clinical trial, which included over 43,000 participants, that the vaccine was 95% effective, was safe and appeared to prevent severe disease.
U.S. officials have stated that they plan to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within 24 hours of its F.D.A. authorization. The vaccine will likely by distributed in phases, with the first going to health care workers and those vulnerable to severe infection.
The U.S. federal government intends to have enough vaccine doses to immunize 100 million people by the end of February, which is about a third of the nation's population.
