Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine could get FDA authorization today, with distribution starting at the weekend, health secretary Alex Azar says

• Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine could receive an emergency use authorization (EUA) "as soon as today," Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said Friday morning.
• The FDA announced Thursday it was "rapidly" working towards granting Moderna's vaccine a EUA, as recommended by an expert panel.
• Distribution is expected to start this weekend, Azar told Good Morning America.
• Azar called the vaccine "exceptionally safe" and said the government had "supreme confidence" in it.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could authorize Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use as early as Friday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told Good Morning America Friday morning.

Distribution of the shot could start this weekend, he added.

His comments come after the FDA, an agency of HHS, said late Thursday that it was "rapidly working toward" authorizing Moderna's COVID-19 shot, after an expert panel gave the vaccine the thumbs-up.

"The FDA has communicated to Moderna that we expect to grant their emergency use authorization," Azar said on the show. "That could come as soon as today," he said.

"Trucks will roll, planes will fly this weekend," he added

President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday morning that the vaccine had been "overwhelmingly approved," and added that distribution will start "immediately." The FDA had not yet authorized the vaccine when Trump tweeted, nor at the time of writing.

Operation Warp Speed, the White House's vaccine effort, plans to ship 5.9 million doses of Moderna's shot to more than 3,200 sites across the nation within a week, and a total of 20 million doses by the end of 2020.

The vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech received emergency use authorization in the US on December 11. The first shots were given out on December 14.

Speaking on Good Morning America, Azar called Moderna's vaccine "exceptionally safe" and "shockingly effective."

"We just want to make sure people know we have got supreme confidence in the process and confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and we wouldn't ask you to do something that we wouldn't do," he said.

US leaders may get immunized over the coming weeks, he added. Vice President Mike Pence got a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday morning.