The highly anticipated decision now replaces emergency use authorization granted by the agency last December for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The full approval can help employers, the military, and universities to mandate vaccination. People that were hesitant to get the vaccine may now feel more at ease for getting the shot sue to the full FDA approval.
A study by the Kaiser Foundations reports- While half the public overall say employers should require their workers to get vaccinated, most workers do not want their own employer to require vaccination, including the vast majority of unvaccinated workers (92%) as well as four in ten workers who are already vaccinated (42%). About four in ten adults say employers should provide cash bonuses or other incentives to workers who get vaccinated, but just 12% of workers say their own employer has offered such an incentive. Source Kaiser
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.
“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.”
