The American regulator FDA has approved the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. This means the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in the United States, which will only be held back by the physical presence of the vaccine and its difficult logistics.

Peter Marks

Director of the FDA Center for Biological Research and Testing

“The safety and effectiveness data allowed us to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine based on the fact that its known and expected benefits clearly outweigh its known and expected risks.”

A new type of vaccine (based on messenger RNA) was created in record time: development started in March, and already in October it showed 95% effectiveness based on the results of the third phase of clinical trials.

Mass vaccination with the Pfizer drug will be limited to developed countries, primarily the United States, but it will not be the only one there either. The reason is not only the shortage and high cost ($39 for two doses), but also the need for a continuous low-temperature (minus 70 degrees) supply chain. It has not yet been debugged even in the USA.

US President Donald Trump, calling the vaccine a “medical miracle,” announced that mass vaccination will begin one day after FDA approval. What does this mean in practical terms, says Reuters. The 2.9 million doses produced so far will be distributed within a few days to US states, the largest medical centers and cities, as well as five federal agencies. Health care workers and older people with chronic conditions will be vaccinated first, followed by key workers and people over 65.

By the end of the year, Pfizer should produce 50 million doses, half of which will go to the United States. By mid-2021, the country should be the first to provide access to one of the vaccines to all of its 300-plus million citizens.

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Russians will be vaccinated with the domestic COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. But the pharmaceutical industry has yet to master its large-scale production. Vladimir Putin ordered mass vaccination to begin in December, but why this is unlikely to happen - read in our newsletter .

We talked in more detail about what drugs will be used to vaccinate Russians and why Western vaccines will not appear here soon.