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FDA gives final approval for Pfizer vaccine

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Posted at 8:48 PM, Dec 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-12 18:48:15-05

WASHINGTON, DC — WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans. The FDA signed off on emergency use of the vaccine Friday evening.

Shots for health workers and nursing home residents are expected to begin in the coming days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of what promises to be a strongly protective vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech.

Initial doses are scarce and rationed as the U.S. joins Britain and several other countries in scrambling to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of a long, grim winter.

The first shipments of the vaccine to Nebraska could start this weekend, with health care workers and nursing home staff and patients in line to get the first doses.

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