The Vaccine

CDC: Woman receives a vaccination from a
public health clinician during the nationwide
Swine Flu vaccination campaign in 1976

Last week the MHRA approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in the UK, and as of this week people have been receiving it starting with the elderly and frontline workers.

On Wednesday, Health Canada approved the vaccine for emergency use in Canada.

On Thursday, the FDA's vaccine advisory board held a 9-hour public forum to discuss the vaccine, after which they voted nearly unanimously in favor of recommending approval of emergency use in the US.

And on Friday, the FDA did just that, authorizing emergency use of the vaccine in the US; doses are shipping out and should start to be administered as soon as Monday.

The New York Times had a neat interactive article where you could visualize your place "in line" for the vaccine, so as suspected, I'm way at the end, but I plan to get it when I'm able.

Being involved in the development to some degree, I know that it wasn't rushed or corners cut. I think this experience will really change the way future drugs are developed. One of the speakers at the VRBPAC meeting said that this just shows we can and should speed development of other types of drugs, like cancer treatments, that could also have a big impact.