US grants full safety approval to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

FDA decision paves the way for wider distribution of jabs and vaccine’s legal mandates in the US.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given full safety approval to Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in a landmark decision that will allow leading US employers and universities to mandate jabs. The FDA’s decision brings about the first US government licence of a vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 which has killed more than 628,500 people in the US since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The Pfizer vaccine, previously approved on an emergency basis, has been widely distributed inside the US and is being shipped by the US government to other nations.