A committee crucial for clearing a COVID-19 vaccine will hold an all-day meeting Thursday, and depending on how it votes, the nation's first doses could ship as early as Friday. The external expert committee will review data from Pfizer and German startup BioNTech on their vaccine, called BNT162b2, and by day's end will vote whether the U.S. FDA should authorize the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine. The companies are requesting an “emergency use authorization,” shy of a full approval. … If the independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommends that authorization, the FDA is expected to sign off on the vaccine, possibly as soon as late Thursday.