Canada health regulator approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Canada’s health regulator approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday, days ahead of possible approval in the United States, and said it hopes to start giving the shots next week. The vaccine made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech vaccine already has been authorized for use by the United Kingdom and Bahrain, and officials have said they expect the U.S. authorization within days. “This a momentous occasion,” said Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser at Health Canada. “The geek in me is amazed. No one would have thought, even when we looked back at the first discovery of the virus, that less than a year later we would be authorizing and distributing a vaccine.”