EU Regulator Approves Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine; 'No Evidence Vaccine Won't Work For New Strain', EMU Chief

The European Union Chief also said that there is no evidence that the vaccine won't work for the new Covid variant. This is the first Vaccine to be authorized for use in the European Union.

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The European Medicines Agency in a meeting on Monday meeting Monday approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer. This is the first Vaccine to be authorized for use in the European Union. The European Union Chief also said that there is no evidence that the vaccine won't work for the new Covid variant. "I am delighted to announce that the EMA scientific committee met today and recommended a conditional marketing authorisation in the EU for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech," EMA chief Emer Cooke told an online press conference. The closed-door meeting comes weeks after the shot was granted permission under emergency provisions by regulators in Britain and the United States. The European regulator came under heavy pressure last week from countries calling for the vaccine to be granted approval for use as quickly as possible. EMA had originally set Dec. 29 as the date for its evaluation of the vaccine made by Germany-based BioNTech, but moved the meeting forward after calls from Berlin and others to move quicker. Britain, Canada and the US authorized the vaccine to be used according to emergency provisions, meaning the shot is an unlicensed product whose temporary use is justified by the pandemic that has killed almost 1.7 million people worldwide to date, according to Johns Hopkins University. So far, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they have seen six cases of severe allergic reaction out of more than a quarter-million shots of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine given, including in one person with a history of vaccination reactions. BioNTech and Pfizer offered the EU 400 million doses of the vaccine, but the bloc’s executive Commission chose to buy only 200 million doses, with an option for 100 million more.