The Food and Drug Administration on Friday night authorized the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use, a potentially major step toward ending the coronavirus pandemic.
The still-experimental vaccine, which was found to be more than 90 percent effective in late-stage clinical trials and does not appear to cause severe side effects, is expected to be rolled out for health care workers and long-term care facility residents in the coming days, the first phase of what should be the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Immediate distribution will be limited, with about 3 million doses expected in the initial shipments, but the goal is to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the December, and another 30 million and 50 million in January and February, respectively. A second vaccine developed by Moderna, which could receive emergency use authorization as early as next week, would theoretically contribute to that total.
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