The FDA Has Authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use, Which Means Millions Of Americans Can Start Getting Vaccines Within Days

CNN- The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized the first Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in the United States. Millions of doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which has been found to be 95% effective, will be soon shipped around the country so vaccinations can begin within days.

An emergency use authorization means what its name suggests: a medical product gets special authorization by the FDA to be used during an emergency -- but it is short of a full approval. Pfizer would have to file a separate application for its vaccine to be fully licensed by the FDA. 

Talk about an all-time Friday night news dump. We may have people getting shots in their arms and lollypops of their choice before ol' Saint Nick does his one day of work per year. If that's not a Christmas miracle, I don't know what is. Actually I guess Baby Jesus being born in a manger is the definition of a Christmas miracle, but that's neither here nor there. I have also been given permission by my friend Sasha here to call this a Hanukkah miracle.

I'm not here to argue with strangers online about the pros and cons of vaccines. If you want to do that, Uncle Chaps has asked that you #embracedebate by tweeting your vaccination opinions directly to him. I am just going to maintain some optimism that all of this will go as smoothly as it can go in the hellscape we are living in right now so the entire world can start to try to get back to where it was before everything went to shit earlier this year. Preferably sooner rather than later.

Before vaccinations can begin, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization advisory committee still must vote to recommend the vaccine, and the CDC must accept that recommendation. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was scheduled to meet Saturday morning.

You know something is serious when people on fancy advisory committees are meeting on a Saturday morning. Anyway, hopefully everything goes smooth, nobody becomes zombies, and the mafia doesn't steal all the vaccines to sell them back to us for thousands of dollars. 

Everybody stay safe and stay sane out there! Maybe just maybe we are turning the corner on this bitch.