FDA Grants Full Approval of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine

This morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people age 16 and older. Up until today, the vaccine has been authorized for emergency use in the United States since mid-December. Out of more than 170 million people in the United States that are fully vaccinated against the Coronavirus, more than 92 million have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Experts hope that full approval will encourage those holding out to get vaccinated and could help with vaccine mandates at businesses, schools and states.

Shortly after the announcement was made, New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all Education Department staff without a testing alternative. All school staff in the state are required to provide proof of their vaccination of at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by September 27th. The New York City Department of Education is now the largest public school system to mandate the vaccine for it’s employees. The New York City Department of Education serves 1.1 million students in over 1,800 schools and employs 143,000 people.