The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. This looks to mark the beginning of the end of a global pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the US and millions around the world.

“Today’s emergency use authorisation of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic in the United States,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a press release.

The authorisation means that people in the US above the age of 16 can now take the vaccine. Clinical trials have found the vaccine to be 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

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The human trials also found the vaccine to protect people against the most severe forms of the disease. It is also highly effective against the virus in people over the age of 65, who are part of the group most vulnerable to COVID-19.

An independent committee of scientists had previously asked the FDA to approve the COVID-19 vaccine. The committee meeting also outlined ways researchers will continue to study the vaccine after its authorisation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA will monitor the vaccine’s safety with multiple monitoring systems. The system will focus on residents in long-term care facilities and people in the military. Pfizer and BioNTech will also track the safety of the vaccine.

It appears that the FDA has taken the recommendation and will henceforth begin to deploy the vaccine.

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