Ted Cruz Falsely Implies That Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine Announcement Was Dependent on Biden’s Win

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appeared to imply that Pfizer‘s Covid-19 vaccine announcement was planned in time for Joe Biden to win the 2020 presidential election. Cruz provided no evidence for his claim, merely using his Twitter presence to highlight a similar tweet from Steve Guest, the GOP‘s Rapid Response Director.

Cruz’s claim is incorrect.

In October, Pfizer announced that it wouldn’t apply for Covid-19 authorization before mid-November.

“Our internal standards for vaccine safety and those required by regulators are set high. In the instance of Emergency Use Authorization in the U.S. for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, FDA is requiring that companies provide two months of safety data on half of the trial participants following the final dose of the vaccine,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in an open letter published on October 16. “Based on our current trial enrollment and dosing pace, we estimate we will reach this milestone in the third week of November. Safety is, and will remain, our number one priority, and we will continue monitoring and reporting safety data for all trial participants for two years.”

Pfizer is right on schedule.

The company also confirmed it did not work with the Trump administration to develop its vaccine, which it says is 90 percent effective. This did not stop either President Trump or Vice President Mike Pence from taking credit for the vaccine, which they falsely attributed to Operation WarpSpeed, their plan for an expedited coronavirus vaccine.