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Vaccinations against coronavirus began today in the U.S. following an emergency approval. The CNN television channel broadcast images of a nurse being vaccinated with the drug from the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and its U.S. partner Pfizer in the eastern New York borough of Queens.
A few minutes after the vaccination, President Donald Trump tweeted, “First vaccine administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations World!”.
Trump claims the vaccine’s rapid scientific success, but Pfizer has repeatedly stressed it is not part of the U.S. government program so it can act independently politically. Now, the first to be vaccinated will be employees of health care facilities and residents of nursing homes and homes for the elderly.
The U.S. is currently experiencing another devastating wave of the pandemic with record numbers of people infected, sick in hospitals, and deaths. Many hospitals are reporting overburdened emergency rooms and a lack of nurses to care for the ever-increasing numbers of infected people. It was expected that the U.S. count by Johns Hopkins University would exceed 300,000 deaths since the pandemic began.
Pfizer and Biontech had also applied to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for approval of the vaccine. The expert committee’s opinion will be available no later than Dec. 29, EMA Director Emer Cooke said. Unlike the U.S., Canada and the U.K., the EU does not grant emergency approval.
- hp, Source: ORF.at/agencies, picture: pixabay.com
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