The U.K. gave emergency approval on Wednesday to Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. The authorization to use the vaccine developed by Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical giant, kicked off a vaccination campaign with little precedent in modern medicine, encompassing not only ultracold dry ice and trays of glass vials but also a crusade against anti-vaccine misinformation.
The vaccine will be available in Britain from next week, according to a statement from the U.K. government. The emergency authorization clears the way for the deployment of a vaccine that’s expected to play a significant role in the global effort to halt the coronavirus.
A vaccine is seen as the best chance for the world to get back to some semblance of normality amid a global pandemic which has killed nearly 1.5 million people and upended the global economy.
“The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use,” the government said.
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have reported preliminary findings of more than 90% effectiveness an unexpectedly high rate in trials of their vaccines, which are both based on new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
The vaccine will be available in Britain from next week, according to a government statement. The U.K. regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said on Wednesday that the vaccine “met its strict standards of safety, quality, and effectiveness.”