On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID jab, the first vaccine to be granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) back in December 2020. The pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the mRNA vaccine, which will now be marketed as Comirnaty, applied for full approval on May 7 for everyone aged 16 and older.
According to CNBC, scientists at the U.S. FDA evaluated "hundreds of thousands of pages" of vaccine data from 40,000 trial participants. They found that the Pfizer jab was 91% effective in preventing COVID, which is four points lower than the rate showed in the data it presented during application for EUA. More than 60% of the U.S. population has had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson. Moderna's application
The Pfizer jab's full approval on Monday immediately sparked vaccine mandates, as predicted by several health and government officials. According to Reuters, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that the city government will require public school teachers and faculty to get the COVID vaccine in the race to slow the spread of the virus' more contagious delta variant.
Mayor De Blasio required that all of the 148,000 plus staff members in the country's largest school district must get at least one dose of the COVID jab by September 27. Forbes reported that United Airlines has also mandated its employees to be fully vaccinated by October 25 in its announcement earlier this month.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown required all of the state's healthcare workers, teachers and school volunteers to be vaccinated by October 18. Louisiana State University president William F. Tate IV announced on Monday that all 34,000 enrolled students will also need to get the COVID vaccine.
According to The Gateway Pundit, President Joe Biden wasted no time in pushing the private sector to implement vaccine mandates. The Democratic leader said during an address on Monday, "I'm calling on more companies in the private sector to step up with vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people. I call on you now to do that. Require it."
In a separate Gateway Pundit report, it was also revealed that the Pentagon has required 1.4 million active duty service members to get the COVID vaccine. The Biden administration hopes that the full approval of the COVID vaccine from the FDA will decrease vaccine hesitancy among Americans.
On August 10, White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients reported that the country saw its highest single day vaccination count of 864,000 since July 3, WebMD reported. Among them were 580,000 who got their first dose of the COVID jab.
But increased willingness to get vaccinated is still few and far between. According to the report, about 90 million Americans who are eligible to get the COVID jab remain hesitant or refuse to get it. Vaccine hesitancy is expected to decrease following the recent full approval of the Pfizer jab.
