Nate Silver: 'Liberal public health elites' may have persuaded Pfizer to delay vaccine release for politics
Silver fired back at liberal journalist's skepticism of theory
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver suggested Wednesday that "liberal public health elites" persuaded Pfizer to "change" its protocols and in turn delay the release of the vaccine until after the 2020 election for the political purposes of hurting President Trump.
Silver reacted to a Politico article on Twitter and first said "'Trump pushed for vaccine approvals too fast' is the worst possible critique of the Trump administration's COVID policy. That probably saved a lot of lives. If anything approval should have been faster."
The tweet from Politico said that a new House report found the Trump administration "pressured" the Food and Drug Administration to "authorize unproven treatments" for the COVID vaccine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Also, the late 2020 push from liberal public health elites that persuaded Pfizer to *change* its original protocols - and had the convenient side-effect of delaying any vaccine announcement until after the election - deserves more scrutiny," Silver continued in a follow-up tweet.
A tray with vials containing Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 booster vaccine seen at a vaccination center. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that children ages 5 to 11 get a third dose of the shot. ( Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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"I don't know for sure but yes the implication is that it may have been politically motivated in whole or in part. Especially given the people making the push, who tend to be strong D partisans. It's a story that deserves more reporting and I've done some poking around myself," he added in a follow-up.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Responding to liberal journalist Josh Marshall's skepticism of his theory, Silver tweeted, "I'm not going to share incomplete reporting but if your prior is that public health elites aren't capable of behaving in a partisan way, particularly the exact public health elites who were engaged in the push with Pfizer, I'm not sure it's worth us having this conversation."
The Politico report detailed the findings of the House Select Subcommittee Democrats on the Coronavirus Crisis.
"The Democrats’ investigation also documents potential influence from former White House officials regarding the FDA’s decision to authorize convalescent plasma, and White House attempts to block the FDA from collecting additional safety data on Covid-19 vaccines in order to get them to the public before the 2020 presidential election," the report said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Democrats alleged that former Trump administration officials were politically motivated in attempts to get hydroxychoroquine treatments and convalescent plasma treatments authorized by the FDA.
"The Trump administration also tried to pressure the FDA to authorize the first Covid-19 vaccines ahead of the presidential election," the Politico report said.
Former President Trump's administration pushed Operation Warp Speed in 2020, which helped produce multiple coronavirus vaccines that year. (Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I am a doctor and was called to serve my country in that capacity. Politics had nothing to do with our work to save lives during Covid-19," Steven Hatfill, an adjunct virology professor at George Washington University, said in a statement. Hatfill worked closely with Peter Navarro and helped advise the administration's COVID-19 response.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 9: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks before signing the agreement for Finland and Sweden to be included in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the East Room of the White House on August 9, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)