The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will grant emergency use authorization to Pfizer Inc.'s experimental COVID-19 vaccine within days, with the first Americans getting immunized as early as Monday or Tuesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday.
Azar, speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America," added that the FDA had informed the drugmaker it planned to move forward toward authorization. The federal government would also work with the company to get the vaccine shipped out, he added.
Azar's announcement came around the same time President Donald Trump lashed out at the FDA on Twitter, calling it a "big, old, slow turtle" that has taken too long to get the vaccines to the public.
A panel of outside advisers to the FDA voted overwhelmingly Thursday to endorse emergency use of the vaccine, paving the way for the agency to authorize the shot for a country that has lost more than 285,000 lives to COVID-19.
Pfizer has asked that the two-dose vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, be approved for use in people aged 16 to 85.
The agency has also notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed so that they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution, it said in a statement.
The vaccine, which was shown to be 95% effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial, is already approved in Britain, and people there began receiving the shots on Tuesday.
Bahrain and Canada have also authorized the vaccine, and Canada expects to start inoculations next week.
© 2025 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.