Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines are expected to ship to Illinois and the rest of the country as soon as this weekend, with much of that shipment being stored in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee is preparing to meet Thursday to discuss Pfizer’s vaccine. Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago Medical School and a member of that committee, talks about that process.

In giving the go-ahead for emergency use of the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, Britain vaulted past the United States by at least a week. 

The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be administered to health care workers in Chicago in three weeks, Chicago health officials said Tuesday.

The announcement came less than a week after an election seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s handling of the scourge, which has killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide.