The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given its full approval to the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in the United States. Although the vaccine has been given so far, this has only happened with an "emergency" authorization.

The two-dose vaccine has met "the high standard of safety, efficiency and quality of production," said acting FDA director Janet Woodstock.

"Although thousands have already received the vaccine safely, we understand that the FDA's approval for use can now give people extra courage to be immunized," Woodstock said.

The agency monitored the results of the vaccination campaign in the country and carefully reviewed the results of 40,000 clinical trials. The researchers found that the effectiveness against COVID-19 was 91%, which is 4% lower than the results of the initial tests.

In the United States, more than 60% of the population has already received at least one dose of the vaccine, and despite the new wave caused by the Delta variant, most people still do not want to be vaccinated.

According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, every three out of ten Americans who currently refuse to be vaccinated would be immunized if any of the vaccines were fully approved. For those who are hesitant, this applies to five out of ten.

This approval is expected to trigger mandatory vaccination requirements for both the public sector and private companies.

The Pentagon has already announced that vaccination will become mandatory for 1.3 million active-duty servicemen "no later than" mid-September. Some of the largest companies, such as Walt Disney and Walmart, have also announced that they will oblige some of their staff to be immunized.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been on the White House vaccination team since the end of Donald Trump's term, full authorization will help "take the extra step to vaccinate the population."

In the months since, critics of the government have often asked the FDA to give full permission for vaccines more quickly. This ultimately happened in four months - the shortest product approval period in the agency's 100-year history.
/SvobodnaEvropa