KEY POINTS
  • The full FDA could grant emergency use authorization of Pfizer's vaccine as early as Friday.
  • The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee plays a key role in approving flu and other vaccines in the U.S.
  • The FDA doesn't have to follow the advisory committee's recommendation, but the agency often does.

A key Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 17 to 4 with one member abstaining on Thursday to recommend the approval of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, the last step before the FDA gives the final OK to broadly distribute the first doses throughout the United States.

If the FDA accepts the nonbinding recommendation from the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee — which is expected — it would mark a pivotal moment in the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 15.4 million people and killed roughly 290,000 in the U.S. in less than a year.