Pfizer and Bio’N’Tech will be the first to offer COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.

After months of research and rapid development, Pfizer and Bio’N’Tech secured authorization for emergency use from the FDA and CDC last night with plans to start administering the first doses starting today. The first shipments of the vaccines were successfully dispatched to hospitals across the country with the first recipients including frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents.

"I am pleased to announce that late yesterday, the FDA authorized for emergency use the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. This is the first #COVID19 vaccine to be authorized in the United States." — FDA Commissioner @SteveFDA during today's virtual press conference pic.twitter.com/jhy6Rk8sSe

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) December 12, 2020

The FDA approved Pfizer to ship out 2.9 million doses to 636 sites across the country starting today with states including Kentucky, Michigan, Connecticut, Washington D.C., New York, and Iowa. All of the vaccine doses started shipping from the warehouse located in Michigan starting yesterday to sites pre-selected by local health officials and governors.

Pfizer recommends two doses of the vaccine with 50 million doses for 2020 that can vaccinate 25 million people. Pfizer has offered the U.S. government additional doses but President Donald Trump has indicated declining the agreement for additional doses for the second quarter of 2021.

Michigan's initial allotment of the Pfizer vaccine will be about 84,825 doses, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Another 173,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be shipped if approved by the FDA. https://t.co/uYwOVWkbAB

— The Detroit News (@detroitnews) December 14, 2020

The U.S. government has also committed to vaccine doses from other pharmaceutical companies including Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The FDA is scheduled to review the Moderna vaccine this week for emergency approval while J&J will be seeking clearance for its vaccine by February.

On Friday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. government will purchase an additional 100 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine by June 2021 along with the first order of 100 million doses. The first initial 20 million doses are expected to be available by the end of December.