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On Monday, Aug. 23, the FDA announced that the Pfizer vaccine has been granted full approval, which is expected to potentially open the door for more COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The Pentagon will mandate vaccines for its 1.4 million active-duty service members, following the FDA approval Monday.
United Airlines recently said its employees will be required to show proof of vaccination within five weeks of regulatory approval.
Pfizer is the first COVID-19 vaccine to gain full approval from the FDA. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still only approved for emergency use authorization. Moderna's vaccine is expected to next gain full approval.
The Pfizer vaccine remains available to those 12 through 15 for emergency use authorization and the administration of a third dose in select immunocompromised Americans.
Of the more than 170 million Americans who are fully vaccinated, more than 92 million have received the Pfizer vaccine.
“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic,” acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said.
“While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product.”
Woodcock noted that some who are hesitant to get the vaccine can garner additional confidence in the shot now that it has the full approval of the FDA.
“While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated,” she said. "Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the US.”
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy echoed Woodcock’s words, saying that the approval could encourage more people to go out and get vaccinated, as well as potential new mandates.
“For businesses and universities that have been thinking about putting vaccine requirements in place in order to create safer spaces for people to work and learn, I think that this move from the FDA, when it comes, will actually help them to move forward with those kinds of plans," Murthy said on CNN.
Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said that “the public and medical community can be confident that although we approved this vaccine expeditiously, it was fully in keeping with our existing high standards for vaccines in the US.”
“Our scientific and medical experts conducted an incredibly thorough and thoughtful evaluation of this vaccine,” he said.
“We evaluated scientific data and information included in hundreds of thousands of pages, conducted our own analyses of Comirnaty’s safety and effectiveness, and performed a detailed assessment of the manufacturing processes, including inspections of the manufacturing facilities.”
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