US panel votes to approve Pfizer vaccine

US drug experts voted on Thursday to recommend granting emergency approval for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for the United States to become the next country to move ahead with mass immunization.

It came as the worst-hit country in the world logged nearly 6,000 virus deaths in 48 hours and its overall toll was approaching 300,000.

With northern hemisphere countries hit by a pandemic winter surge, the United Kingdom this week became the first Western country to roll out the Pfizer vaccine.

Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have also approved it.

European Union countries eagerly awaited a green light for vaccines that the bloc's own watchdog said remained on track for approval despite a two-week-long cyberattack, which is under investigation.

Independent experts convened by the US Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, voted 17 in favor, four against and with one abstention for emergency approval of the two-dose regimen for those aged over-16.

The vote is nonbinding, but a formal emergency use authorization, or EUA, is expected within days.

The FDA said it would issue an allergy warning following Britain's lead after two healthcare workers there suffered reactions and needed treatment.

The US hopes to vaccinate 20 million people this month, with long-term care facility residents and health workers at the front of the line.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the US showed women, who traditionally make most of the healthcare decisions in their families, are more wary than men of the new, rapidly developed COVID-19 vaccines, presenting a potential challenge to efforts to immunize the public.

The Dec 2-8 national opinion survey showed 35 percent of women said they were "not very" or "not at all" interested in getting a vaccine, an increase of 9 points from a similar poll conducted in May when vaccines were still being developed.

Overall, 61 percent of them said in December that they are open to getting vaccinated－a 4 point decline since the May poll. The latest survey also recorded a sharp drop in the number of parents willing to give their children the vaccine－53 percent versus 62 percent in May.

Intense preparations

The first vaccine shipments to 14 sites across Canada are scheduled to arrive on Monday with people receiving shots a day or two later. Healthcare workers and vulnerable populations including the elderly are also to be the first to receive it.

Israel accepted its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday, targeting a rollout on Dec 27.

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez said on Thursday he would be the first person in his country to be injected with Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in order to dispel public fears.

But development of a COVID-19 vaccine in Australia was abandoned after clinical trials produced a false positive HIV result among subjects involved in early-stage testing.

Agencies, Ai Heping and Minlu Zhang in New York contributed to this story.