Topline
Federal investigators are investigating claims suggesting Pfizer delayed announcing test results of its Covid vaccine until after the 2020 presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reported, bolstering a claim by President Donald Trump, who has said for years the company withheld vaccine results to impact his chances at reelection.
Key Facts
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is leading an investigation into claims by a scientist who used to work at Pfizer, who allegedly told colleagues and GSK that the company delayed announcing the success of its Covid vaccine until after the 2020 election, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
The scientist, Phil Dormitzer, who no longer works at GSK, reportedly denies making the allegations.
An investigation into the disputed comments follows claims by Trump, who alleged in a series of social media posts that Pfizer “didn’t have the courage” to announce details about the company’s Covid vaccine until after Election Day in 2020, suggesting without evidence Pfizer “didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN” before the election.
Investigators have interviewed at least two people in the probe, including a GSK executive who took notes of a conversation with Dormitzer, and prosecutors are expected to soon interview a third person, the Journal reported.
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Neither Dormitzer nor Pfizer immediately responded to requests for comment, though Pfizer told Reuters in a statement the company has “consistently and transparently reiterated the facts and the timeline” of its vaccine, arguing, “Theories to the contrary are simply untrue.”
Did Pfizer Delay The Release Of Its Covid Vaccine?
Both Pfizer and its biotech partner BioNTech have denied claims the companies delayed the release of their Covid vaccine. Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president at Pfizer and head of the company’s vaccine research and development, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science shortly after the 2020 election that Pfizer’s vaccine development was “never about politics” and the company “had no time and still have no time to deal with politics.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla suggested in October 2020 the company would know whether its vaccine was effective by the end of the month, though he noted federal guidelines would likely delay Pfizer’s request for an expedited public release until at least the third week of November 2020. Bourla previously projected trial results would come by late September 2020, but the timeline was delayed as the company increased the number of participants in its trial. Bourla said in November 2020 the company “didn’t conspire with anyone” to delay its trial result.
What Has Trump Said About Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine?
Trump has alleged the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer conspired with the so-called “medical deep state” to delay the release of Pfizer’s vaccine trial results until six days after Election Day in 2020. After the announcement, Trump requested the Department of Health and Human Services to “get to the bottom” of what happened with Pfizer’s alleged delay, the Washington Post reported. He pushed his claims on Twitter, now known as X, writing, “As I have long said, Pfizer and the others would only announce a vaccine after the election, because they didn’t have the courage to do it before.” Trump claimed the FDA “should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but for saving lives.” He later claimed credit for Pfizer’s announcement and suggested the company denied having received financial support from the Trump administration. Though Pfizer never received direct federal funding to develop its vaccine, it did benefit from a nearly $2 billion advance order from the U.S. for 100 million doses.
Key Background
Pfizer and BioNTech announced the results of their Covid vaccine on Nov. 9, 2020, six days after Election Day. Former President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election just two days earlier, a result Trump and some of his allies decried amid false claims of widespread voter fraud. The companies said their vaccine was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing the spread of Covid in a late-stage trial, and the announcement did not indicate the vaccine would be immediately available to the public.
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