What to expect from today’s big FDA meeting on the Pfizer vaccine

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A committee of outside experts advising the Food and Drug Administration has convened this morning and is now publicly deliberating whether the agency should grant an Emergency Use Authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner, German biotech firm BioNTech.

If the committee votes to grant an authorization-and the FDA agrees-the federal government's Operation Warp Speed has said it will begin shipping vaccine allotments to states and jurisdictions within hours.

So far, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has already been approved in the United Kingdom-after a remarkably speedy 10-day review. The country began a mass vaccination campaign this week. On Wednesday, Canadian health officials announced that they, too, had authorized the vaccine.

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