The first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is authorised

The FDA granted emergency authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after a randomized trial involving tens of thousands of participants showed roughly 95% efficacy against symptomatic infection. It was the first mRNA vaccine ever authorized for use in the general public, less than a year after the pandemic began. Moderna's mRNA vaccine followed a week later. Both relied directly on the lipid-delivery and modified-nucleoside work developed decades earlier, technology that had never been tested at this scale before.