FDA authorizes Novavax as new alternative to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
CBSN
The Food and Drug Administration has granted Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization, paving the way for a new fourth option for the 10% of American adults who have yet to receive at least one dose of any other shot.
"Today's authorization offers adults in the United States who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine another option that meets the FDA's rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf in a release on Wednesday.
Like the other available COVID-19 vaccines, Novavax's shots will need to be formally recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before they can be made available. That could happen as soon as next Tuesday, when the agency's outside vaccine advisers are next scheduled to meet.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.