On December 2, 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was “temporarily authorised“, by UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ( MHRA), becoming the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorised anywhere in the world, “paving the way for mass vaccination”. [1, 2]
The vaccine was reported to offer “up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness”. Pfizer’s CEO stated on December 3, 2020 that Pfizer don’t know if the vaccine will prevent transmission – the entire purpose of a mass vaccination campaign.
The governments authorisation “follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness”, contradictory to Pfizer FOIA documents.
On 30 December “the cheaper and easier-to-distribute Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine” was approved. A third vaccine, produced by Moderna, was approved for use in the UK in January 2021. Finally, Janssen’s single-dose vaccine was approved in May 2021, although it is yet to be used. [1, 2]