Why emergency use authorization came first

This weekend, officials familiar with the decision said they discussed how to prepare for the rollout once the FDA grants full approval, given it will be a major messaging opportunity to encourage vaccination.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that approval could encourage more people to get vaccinated, and more mandates.

“For businesses and universities that have been thinking about putting vaccine requirements in place in order to create safer spaces for people to work and learn, I think that this move from the FDA, when it comes, will actually help them to move forward with those kinds of plans,” Murthy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

Murthy also noted “a small number of people” have been waiting for full approval before getting their shot and believes “this may tip them over toward getting vaccinated.”

Why emergency use authorization came first

Due to the seriousness of the pandemic, vaccine makers originally applied for emergency use authorizations because the authorization process takes less time than what’s required for full approval.

Some experts have pushed the FDA to approve vaccines quickly, as doing so could help combat vaccine hesitancy.

FDA approval could fight vaccine hesitancy, experts say

Progressing from authorized to approved would allow manufacturers to market and directly distribute their vaccines — and perhaps sway skeptics hesitant to get the vaccines now.

“I want you to know that I will seek the President’s approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensure, whichever comes first,” the memo states.

Full FDA approval may also mean big changes in terms of vaccine requirements for staff and students in schools.

Across all 50 states, at least five routine childhood vaccines are generally required for children attending childcare or school, including those for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus or DTaP, chickenpox, poliio and MMR. But those shots have all been fully approved by the FDA.

“Covid-19 is a little bit different from these other vaccines because of the way it had to be developed,” Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, told CNN in July.

“That is a difference, I think, in some people’s minds who have concerns around potential side effects for children,” Tewarson said, noting that clinical trials for the EUA for children 12 and older were robust, and there were not significant side effects.

But full FDA approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is for people age 16 and older — it’s not yet available for all ages.

What does approval mean for kids?

As of now, the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is still only available for ages 12 and older in the United States.

“Does getting full approval for an adult vaccine, does that matter in terms of speeding up the process for approval for the childhood vaccines? I think the answer to that question is probably no,” Dr. Paul Offit, a prominent member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CNN previously.

Overall, “this is all sort of new territory — the notion of emergency use authorization obviously is new, certainly for vaccines that have been used to this extent.”