US panel recommends Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

A U.S. government advisory panel has voted to endorse mass use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to help conquer the outbreak that has killed close to 300,000 Americans.

The meeting of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration represented the next-to-last hurdle before the expected start of the biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Depending on how fast the FDA signs off on the panel's recommendation, shots could begin within days.

The FDA panel functions like a science court.

During the scheduled daylong session, it debated and picked apart the data - in public - on whether the vaccine is safe and effective enough to be cleared for emergency use.

With unprecedented interest in the normally obscure panel, the FDA broadcast the meeting via Youtube, and thousands logged on.

The FDA is not required to follow the committee’s advice but is widely expected to do so. Once that happens, the U.S. will begin shipping millions of doses of the shot.

Later this month, the FDA is expected to pass judgment on another vaccine, developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, that has proved about as protective as Pfizer's. Vaccine candidates by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are also in the pipeline.

The meeting of experts on vaccine development, infectious diseases and medical statistics came as the coronavirus continues surging across much of the world, claiming more than 1.5 million lives, including about 290,000 in the U.S.