Pfizer to continue distributing version of COVID-19 vaccine not fully approved by FDA

Pfizer's vaccine against COVID-19 has been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, yet the pharmaceutical giant is still providing distributors across the country with an earlier version of the vaccine that predates FDA's full approval.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine allowed under federal Emergency Use Authorization in December 2020 and the Comirnaty vaccine approved by the FDA in August are identical, according to Pfizer and several experts.

"In terms of its ingredients and how it is made, the FDA-approved vaccine is no different from the vaccine that has been administered, to date, to hundreds of millions around the world under the EUA," a Pfizer spokesperson told Just the News.

Legal differences between the EUA-sanctioned and FDA-approved vaccines have potentially significant implications for vaccine mandates.

In Ohio, a recently signed law states that "a public school or state institution of higher education shall not require an individual to receive a vaccine for which the [FDA] has not granted full approval." Such measures have led to debates over the precise nature of the legal differences between the two types of vaccines - and whether FDA approval should legally be a limitation for vaccine mandates.

R. Davis Younts, an attorney based in Lemoyne, Penn., who represents dozens of clients resisting vaccine mandates, said the government can't compel people to take vaccines that have only been authorized under EUA. "Government agencies do not have the legal authority to mandate any of the EUA vaccines," Younts told Just the News.

Federal officials say those concerns aside, they believe serious vaccine reactions are still rare and in most cases protections provided by vaccines outweigh the risks.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/pfizer-continue-distributing-version-covid-19-vaccine-not-fully-approved-fda