U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told Chris Wallace of "Fox News Sunday" that the Food and Drug Administration full approval of COVID vaccines would not only encourage more Americans to get the jab, but may spark a round of vaccine mandates in both public and private sectors.
He said that the vaccines' long awaited "full" approval, versus its current Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), will lead to more universities and businesses requiring students, faculty, and employees to get the jab before returning to work or school.
"There are universities and businesses that have been considering putting in vaccine requirements in order to create a safer, a workplace, a learning environment," Murthy said, as reported by the New York Post. "I think this announcement from the FDA would likely encourage them and make them feel more comfortable in putting some requirements in place."
Murthy echoed the same sentiments when he appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," where he said, "We already know that there are many businesses and universities that have moved toward vaccine requirements and I think that's a very reasonable thing to do to create a safe environment."
"There's one other thing I think we need to do that some states have been doing to create a safer school environment, and that's requiring that employees in the school, including teachers and other staff, are vaccinated as well to create a safer environment for our kids," the U.S. Surgeon General said, as reported by Yahoo! News.
Pfizer's two dose COVID vaccine was the first to get EUA status from the U.S. FDA on December 11, 2020. Its full authorization was slated to be announced on Labor Day on September 6 but was expedited to this week due to the surge of the more infectious delta variant of COVID.
The full approval of COVID vaccines has been criticized by some transparency advocates, The BMJ reported. The backlash came forth from the FDA's decision to forgo a formal advisory committee meeting to discuss Pfizer's application for full approval of its COVID vaccine. While the FDA committed to using an advisory committee to ensure public transparency, the organization also said that they did not believe that a meeting with the advisory committee was necessary before granting full approval.
"The FDA also has held meetings of the VRBPAC on all three covid-19 vaccines authorised for emergency use and does not believe a meeting is needed related to this biologics license application," it said.
Drug safety advocate Kim Witczak, who is on the FDA's Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee as a consumer representative, argued that FDA's refusal to hold a meeting has removed an important avenue in which data can be scrutinized before the approval of the vaccine. Witczak, along with at least 30 more individuals, have gone on to establish a citizen petition to prevent the FDA from granting full approval without an open public forum first.
