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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it’s working toward rapid emergency-use authorization ofPfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine that wasbacked Thursday by a panel of agency advisers.
The drug regulator has “notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed, so they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution,” the FDA said Friday in astatement.
The FDA statement comes as the agency is under tremendous political pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration to clear the vaccine, which has already been approved by the U.K. and Canada. Weary Americans are also eager for an end to a pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 and dealt a crippling blow to the economy.
Trump in a Friday tweet called the FDA “a big, old, slow turtle,” and demanded Stephen Hahn, the agency’s director, “get the dam vaccines out NOW.”
224,452 in U.S.Most new cases today
+9% Change in MSCI World Index of global stocks since Wuhan lockdown, Jan. 23
-0.8427 Change in U.S. treasury bond yield since Wuhan lockdown, Jan. 23
4% Global GDP Tracker (annualized), Oct.