Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gets emergency use authorisation in the US Associated Press Washington: The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory panel, comprising external experts, has given an emergency use approval to Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. It is the second COVID-19 vaccine after Pfizer to receive such an authorisation in less than a week. FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), made up of independent scientific and public health experts, at its meeting Thursday voted 20-0 with one abstention to recommend emergency use authorization for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273. The FDA allowed last Friday the emergency use of the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The US is desperately trying to combat the disease that has killed over 310,000 people.