Nashville, TN (TnTribune)
A committee that advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccines has scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices posted the meeting announcement on its website with little explanation.
While it does not say explicitly that the meeting is to discuss coronavirus vaccine distribution, there’s no other likely reason for such a meeting to be called.
A CDC spokesperson later confirmed the meeting was called to discuss coronavirus vaccines but could not provide more details.
ACIP met on Monday to discuss whether to recommend any coronavirus vaccine that might get emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration and to talk about who should be first in line to get one.
While the FDA approves or authorizes a vaccine, it’s the CDC, based on ACIP’s advice, that decides who should get vaccines and when.
ACIP usually meets regularly three times a year but the approval of a pandemic vaccine is an unusual circumstance.
The CDC did not immediately answer requests for explanation about the meeting.
So far, Pfizer is the only company to apply for an EUA from the FDA. The submission to the FDA was based on results from the Phase 3 clinical trial of Pfizer’s vaccine, which began in the United States on July 27 and enrolled more than 43,000 volunteers.
This article first appeared on CNN.com