An emergency authorization would allow limited groups of Americans to get the vaccines before the F.D.A. has completed the typical monthslong approval process, but agency officials have made clear through new guidelines that their bar for emergency authorization will be high. There are an estimated 17 million to 20 million health care workers in the United States, and about a million people living in nursing homes. After lowering expectations for how many millions of vaccines they can produce this year, the companies expect to ramp up their manufacturing early next year. If other vaccines are also authorized, hundreds of millions of doses could be available by the spring, according to federal officials.

Source: New York Times November 20, 2020 19:50 UTC