Coronavirus: the United States has authorized “the emergency …

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the body that regulates the marketing of drugs, on Friday authorized the use of the covid-19 vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The authorization was signed by the FDA on Friday evening, hours after the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, notify the agency director, Stephen hahn, What he could prepare her resignation if he didn’t deal with her today.

In a statement, Hahn said that “today’s decision follows an open and transparent review process that included input from independent scientists and public health experts and a thorough assessment by scientific professionals of the agency “.

The United States thus becomes the sixth country in the world to authorize the Pfizer vaccine after the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

This emergency authorization (an exceptional process before approval) comes after Thursday an advisory committee on vaccines of the FDA gave its approval with 17 votes in favor, only 4 against and abstention from the Pfizer vaccine.

Pfizer’s vaccine comes at worst time of pandemic in United States, which averages over 200,000 infections a day and this week has passed the 3,000 death mark in 24 hours.

The most recent data indicate that there are 15,834,965 infections and 294,874 deaths by covid-19, more than in any other country, according to the Johns Hopkins University independent tally.

Pfizer has pledged 25 million doses before the end of the year (each vaccinee needs two doses) and 100 million by the arrival of March.

The first batch of 2.9 million doses could be distributed in the United States within the next 24 hours, according to federal officials responsible for delivering the vaccine across the country.