US experts vote to recommend granting emergency approval for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for America to become the next country to move ahead with mass immunization as the country's virus death toll approaches 300,000.

The US government's top infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci also comments on the vaccine recommendation, saying "they are safe and they are highly effective, and those decisions were made by independent bodies without any political or other influence."