FDA's Blockade: Feds Try to Withhold 55,000 Pages on Vaccine from Public Despite Court Order

Weeks after a federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to get Americans the data it relied upon when it approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, it appears the FDA and Pfizer are balking.

Aaron Siri, the lawyer for the group that sued to have the 450,000 pages of information published sooner rather than later, said the FDA is already objecting to a timetable that called for an accelerated publication schedule to take effect March 1, according to a Wednesday post on his Substack.

Siri said the FDA - which had initially called for publishing 500 pages a month and been told to hit the level of 55,000 pages a month - wants to delay the start of that until May 1.

"Pfizer supports the public disclosure of the vast majority of this information to promote transparency and the public's confidence in the vaccine, and Pfizer seeks to intervene for the limited purpose of ensuring that information that is exempt from disclosure under FOIA is not disclosed inappropriately," the company said in its motion.

"In light of FDA's statements regarding its capacity to review the requested information at an increased pace, and this Court's order to produce this information on an expedited basis, Pfizer seeks leave to intervene in this action for the limited purpose of ensuring that information exempt from disclosure under is adequately protected as FDA complies with this Court's order," the motion said.

Yes: 100%. No: 0%. The FDA said in a court filing Tuesday it welcomed Pfizer's review.

Pittman recognized in his order that meeting the timetable he had adopted would be a challenge for the FDA, but said the "Court concludes that this FOIA request is of paramount public importance."
 

https://nationalfile.com/fdas-blockade-feds-try-withhold-55000-pages-vaccine-public-despite-court-order/