What you need to know about general FDA vaccine approval Lidia Ryan FacebookTwitterEmail On Dec. 14, Connecticut healthcare workers began taking the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine - the first to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said its preliminary analysis confirmed the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, bringing it to the cusp of U.S. authorization. Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images In this file photo Dr. Nita Patel, Director of Antibody discovery and Vaccine development, lifts a vial with a potential coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine at Novavax labs in Rockville, Maryland on March 20, 2020.