US experts vote to approve Pfizer vaccine

US experts vote to approve Pfizer vaccine

US experts voted on Thursday to recommend granting emergency approval for Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for America to become the next country to move ahead with mass immunisation.

It comes as the worst-hit country in the world logged nearly 6,000 virus deaths in 48 hours and its overall toll was approaching 300,000.

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With northern hemisphere countries hit by a pandemic winter surge, Britain this week became the first Western country to roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have also approved it.

EU countries eagerly awaited a greenlight for vaccines that the bloc's own watchdog said remained on track for approval despite a two-week-long cyberattack, which is under investigation.

Independent experts convened by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 17 in favor, four against and with one abstention for emergency approval of the two-dose regimen in over-16s.

The vote is non-binding, but a formal emergency use authorisation (EUA) is expected within days.

Momentum was building as the New England Journal of Medicine published full results of a clinical trial of the vaccine involving nearly 44,000 people, which