“Just a little bit ago, the FDA informed Pfizer that they do intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine,” US Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday.
HHS confirmed to CNN that Azar was referencing a tweet posted on Friday morning, which links to a Friday US Food and Drug Administration news release from the FDA’s Dr. Stephen Hahn and Dr. Peter Marks.
Azar said that “in the next couple of days, probably,” as they work to negotiate with Pfizer and get information the doctors need to prescribe it appropriately, “we should be seeing the authorization of this first vaccine.”
Azar said that they will work with Pfizer to get it shipped out and “so we could be seeing people get vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.”
“So, it’s very close. It’s really just the last dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s,” Azar added.