First vaccination doses up 17 percent since Pfizer approval: analysis

The number of Americans who have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has risen by 17 percent since Pfizer’s was granted full approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week, according to an analysis by ABC News.

ABC notes that first dose administrations had stagnated before the FDA announced its decision.

An average of 404,000 Americans per day were getting initial doses in the week before full approval was granted. That number has risen to roughly 473,000 people getting their first doses as of Monday, according to ABC.

Pfizer is the most commonly administered COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 210 million doses have been administered in the U.S. so far, and 94.3 million individuals have been fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s vaccine.

Many health experts had predicted that full approval of a COVID-19 vaccine would increase administration as some of the vaccine-hesitant held out until full approval was given.

“As expected, full approval was enough to convince at least some to finally get immunized,” said John Brownstein, an ABC News contributor and Boston Children’s Hospital epidemiologist.

“While surveys initially had estimated a far greater segment of the population who pegged full approval as their reason for holding off, we have yet to see a large wave of newly convinced people to roll up their sleeves,” Brownstein added.

Last week, Moderna completed its submission for full FDA approval for its own COVID-19 vaccine. This marked the company’s first time submitting for a full approval, which Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel called an “important milestone in our battle against COVID-19 and for Moderna.”