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Dec 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it authorized the use of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, with the first inoculations expected within days, marking

a turning point in the United States where the pandemic has killed more than 295,000 people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for the vaccine,

developed with German partner BioNTech, which was shown to be 95% effective in preventing the disease in a late-stage trial. ADVERTISEMENT The FDA said the vaccine can be given to people

aged 16 and older. Healthcare workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities are expected to be the main recipients of a first round of 2.9 million doses. "The first vaccine

will be administered in less than 24 hours," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a video posted on Twitter. "I am proud to say we have made sure this vaccine will be free for all

Americans." The U.S. government has said it will begin distributing the vaccine around the country immediately after FDA authorization and that the first inoculations would happen early

next week. Millions of Americans could begin getting vaccinated this month, especially if a second vaccine from Moderna Inc is quickly approved. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was first

approved in Britain earlier this month, and UK residents began receiving the shots on Tuesday. Canada also authorized the vaccine and expects to start inoculations next week. Mexico and

Bahrain have also approved the vaccine. The FDA authorization, known as an EUA, comes at a time when infections, hospitalizations and deaths are soaring to record levels in the United

States, which has failed to mount a coordinated effort to slow the spread of the virus. Earlier this week, the one-day COVID-19 death total topped 3,000, while hospital intensive care units

across the country are nearing capacity, threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems. ADVERTISEMENT "The EUA was anticipated and it is one step in a sequence of steps that will bring

this pandemic to an end," said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "I’m not going to feel that there is an EUA tomorrow when I’m taking

care of COVID-19 patients. A lot of people will be infected, a lot will be hospitalized and a lot will die before the vaccine is able to have a meaningful impact on spread," he added.

Others with vaccines in advanced development include Moderna, which could win emergency U.S. authorization as soon as next week, AstraZeneca Plc with Oxford University, and Johnson &

Johnson. BioNTech began developing the vaccine in January, using a technology called synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) that had yet to produce an approved product. The technology uses a

chemical messenger to instruct cells to make proteins that mimic part of the new coronavirus, which the immune system learns to recognize as an invader. BioNTech struck a development deal

with Pfizer in March. The vaccine comes with complex distribution challenges as it must be shipped and stored at -70 Celsius (-94 F), requiring specialized ultra-cold freezers or supplies of

dry ice. Moderna's vaccine employs the same technology but does not need to be stored at sub-Arctic temperatures. THE FIRST SHOTS ADVERTISEMENT Pfizer has developed a special shipping

container that will be filled with dry ice to keep the vaccine from spoiling. Many states are concerned about whether there is enough dry ice for shipments to rural areas that lack the

specialized freezers, but Pfizer believes there should be sufficient supply. The U.S. quest for a vaccine has been the central response to the pandemic from a Trump administration that has

mostly otherwise left states to fend for themselves. It has said it will have enough to supply all of the 330 million U.S. residents who wish to be vaccinated by the middle of 2021. The

government has ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine - enough to inoculate 50 million people - through its Operation Warp Speed virus development program and could negotiate for

more. The status of those talks are unclear. Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview with CNBC earlier this week that the company had offered to

sell the United States more doses as recently as last month but had been turned down. The United States has agreed to buy 200 million doses of Moderna's two-dose vaccine. The government

also has supply deals with J&J and AstraZeneca, but authorization of those vaccines are not imminent. Top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said if distribution goes

well and enough Americans agree to get vaccinated, relief for a pandemic weary nation may be on the horizon. "If we do it efficiently enough by the second quarter of 2021, and by the

end of summer or end of third quarter, we may actually have enough herd immunity protecting our society," he said. "And as we get to the end of 2021, we could approach very much

some degree of normality that is close to where we were before." (Additional reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru, Eric Beech in Washington and Carl O'Donnell in New York;

Editing by Leslie Adler, Daniel Wallis, Peter Henderson, Sonya Hepinstall and Raju Gopalakrishnan) ADVERTISEMENT RELATED: Trump signs bill averting government shutdown; fight on coronavirus

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