Opinion: How the UK beat the US to Covid-19 vaccine authorization

Early Tuesday morning, reporters and cameramen crowded around a small hospital room in Coventry, UK, to watch as Margaret Keenan -- who celebrates her 91st birthday next week -- became the first person in the world to receive the novel Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 outside of developmental trials. This marks the start of a UK-wide roll-out, in which people age 80 or over, and frontline health and social care workers are the first in line to receive the vaccine. This historic moment was made possible after the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted temporary authorization for use of the vaccine last week.