Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine faces one final hurdle as it races to become the first shot greenlighted in the United States: a panel of experts who will scrutinise the company’s data for any red flags, AP reported.

Thursday’s meeting of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory panel is likely the last step before a US decision to begin shipping millions of doses of the shot, which has shown strong protection against the coronavirus.

The FDA panel functions like a science court that will pick apart the data and debate — in public and live-streamed — whether the shot is safe and effective enough to be cleared for emergency use. The non-government experts specialise in vaccine development, infectious diseases and medical statistics.

The FDA is expected to follow the committee’s advice, although it is not required to do so.