In a blow to FDA’s scheme of hiding the clinical trials data for Pfizer’s COVID vaccines, a federal judge in Texas ordered the agency to start releasing the data at a much faster speed than the agency suggested.
SarahWestall.com reported Aaron Siri’s story breaking the news that a federal judge rejected the FDA’s request to release only 500 pages of the Pfizer’s COVID vaccines trial data per month, and ordered the FDA to produce all the data at the rate of 55,000 pages per month. The story wrote:
In ordering the release of the documents in a timely manner, the Judge recognized that the release of this data is of paramount public importance and should be one of the FDA’s highest priorities.
The ruling was issued on Thursday, January 6, by Judge Mark T. Pittman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The full text of the Judge’s order is made available online. The ruling orders:
The FDA shall produce the “more than 12,000 pages” articulated in its own proposal, see ECF No. 29 at 24, on or before January 31, 2022.
- The FDA shall produce the remaining documents at a rate of 55,000 pages every 30 days, with the first production being due on or before March 1, 2022, until production is complete.
- To the extent the FDA asserts any privilege, exemption, or exclusion as to any responsive record or portion thereof, FDA shall, concurrent with each production required by this Order, produce a redacted version of the record, redacting only those portions as to which privilege, exemption, or exclusion is asserted.
- The Parties shall submit a Joint Status Report detailing the progress of the rolling production by April 1, 2022, and every 90 days thereafter.
This ruling strikes a blow to the FDA’s attempt of releasing the data so slowly that a whole generation won’t be able to see the full data in their lifetime. The FDA first suggested in November that it can’t release the full data before the year 2076. Next month, it was reported by Children’s Health Defense that the FDA wants 75 years to release the full clinical trials data for Pfizer’s COVID vaccines.
