COVID Vaccine Safety Data

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have repeatedly promised full transparency concerning the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine data. However, when a group of public health professionals and scientists put in a request under the Freedom of Information Act, for release of the data they received no response, so in August 2021 they filed a request with the Supreme Court.

The FDA requested to release 500 pages a month. But at that rate it was estimated that it would take 75 years before full disclosure was achieved. But, on 6th January 2022, the Supreme Court rejected the FDA’s request and ordered them to produce more than 12,000 pages before 21st January 2022 and the remaining documents at a rate of 55,000 pages every 30 days until the release of nearly 400,000 pages of documents is complete, with the first production on or before 1st March 2022.

However, less than 1 month after this ruling, Pfizer has asked a federal court to allow them to intervene before any information is released. Pfizer seek to “intervene in this action for the limited purpose of ensuring that information exempt from disclosure under FOIA is adequately protected as FDA complies with this Court’s order.” Apparently the FDA support them and now insist on a delay to the first 55,000 page production until 1st May 2022, despite the fact that it has been shown by the FDA’s own papers that they have more than sufficient resources to produce the requested documents.

The FDA claimed Pfizer is entitled to intervene in the case and the process of redacting the documents in question, due to the Trade Secrets Act. However, it is stated that the protections provided under that law allow for an owner of a trade secret to sue in federal court when its trade secrets have been misappropriated; it does not even imply that a company could intervene in a public records request through the FOIA.

Now I admit that I don’t fully understand the legal system or the data involved, but I have one big question; Why do Pfizer and the FDA not wish to release public data? If it is not as suspicious as it sounds, then what is the problem? It’s certainly not lack of resources as that has been shown otherwise. What on earth could come under the Trade Secrets Act within public records of vaccine safety data? Who else says this all smells somewhat fishy?