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US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee has voted to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people 16 and older a day after the US Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine. The vote by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (AICP) on Saturday moves the country a step closer to getting millions of people vaccinated.
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield must accept the committee's recommendation before the vaccine can be administered. He is expected to do that later on Saturday.
After months of development, emergency use was authorized following the recommendation of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a Pfizer spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Friday night.
"The authorization of our vaccine in the United States was one of our most important milestones from the beginning," BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told CNN in an exclusive interview at BioNTech's headquarters in Mainz, Germany.
Here's what we know about the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.