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Breaking: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine is Fully Approved in the U.S.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration has issued full authorization to the COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer.
The FDA granted full U.S. approval to the Pfizer COVID vaccine, making it the first in the country to receive the designation. This may give businesses and other institutions greater confidence to embrace vaccine mandates.
Today, FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of #COVID19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. https://t.co/iOqsxXV1fj
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 23, 2021
According to a CNBC report, before the FDA issued the approval, the mRNA vaccine in the U.S. was only being used under an Emergency Use Authorization. This was granted by the agency back in December. Since then, over 204 million jabs of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered, per CDC data.
Pfizer Jab Approval Could Cause Many Institutions and Establishments to Require Vaccination
This approval will likely spur a new wave of government, corporate, and even military mandates. Previously, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that a slew of new mandates connected to the vaccine will surface once the FDA gives the full approval.
“As soon as the Food and Drug Administration issues a full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, there will be ‘a flood’ of vaccine mandates at businesses and schools across the nation,” Fauci said when he apple to USA Today.
“Mandates aren’t going to happen at the federal level, but vaccine approval will embolden many groups,” the doctor also mentioned.
He also added that establishments that have been reluctant to require the vaccine at a local level will become more confident to do so.
Fauci mentioned that colleges and universities can now require people wanting to go there to go get the jab. He mentioned that a workplace can now say that people who want to work with them need to get vaccinated.
With this, the Pentagon is reportedly set to mandate U.S. troops to get the COVID vaccine, according to the memo issued by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as reported by the Associated Press.
According to the AP, the deadline for this may be pushed up if the FDA grants it full approval or if infection rates continue to go up.
Austin further stated that he will ask for President Joe Biden’s approval to make the vaccine mandatory no later than the middle of September or upon the FDA granting it full authorization, “whichever comes first.”
“I will not hesitate to act sooner or recommend a different course to the President if l feel the need to do so. To defend this Nation, we need a healthy and ready force,” the Defense Secretary went on to say.
The AP report also noted that any personnel in the Armed Forces who refuse to get the vaccine is subject to punishment under the U.C.M.J.
Currently, there remains an unresolved legal issue of whether or not granting COVID-19 vaccines full approval will open drug manufacturers, along with those who mandate the vaccines, for civil litigation.
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