Congress probes Pfizer for allegedly using COVID-19 vaccine to swing 2020 election
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating Pfizer over reports that it delayed the rollout of the COVID-19 mRNA shots to help swing the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
‘Let’s just say it wasn’t a coincidence’
According to a Wall Street Journal report in March, the allegations are based on remarks by a former Pfizer executive named Phil Dormitzer. As global head of Vaccines Research and Development, Dormitzer oversaw the development of the COVID-19 shots and their rollout in December 2020 under President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative. In 2021, Dormitzer left Pfizer for its rival, pharma giant GSK. In November 2024, Dormitzer reportedly told GSK executives that Pfizer had deliberately delayed completing the clinical trials until after the election so as not to aid a Trump victory.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent letters to Dormitzer, Pfizer, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla requesting documents and information related to these allegations. In the letters, Jordan revealed that GSK executives confirmed Dormitzer’s remarks in a communique last month. The executives said that after Trump’s re-election in November 2024, Dormitzer approached GSK’s human resources team “visibly upset” and requesting relocation to Canada. When an HR employee asked him what prompted his request, Dormitzer said he feared being investigated by the Trump administration because: “Let’s just say it wasn’t a coincidence, the timing of the vaccine.”
Dormitzer further told GSK officials that “in late 2020, the three most senior people in Pfizer R&D were involved in a decision to deliberately slow down clinical testing so that it would not be complete prior to the results of the presidential election that year.”
October 2020 was the target
Both Pfizer and the Trump administration had been shooting for October 2020 as the deadline for announcing the clinical trial results. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told The Today Show that the results would be published in October, and Trump confirmed that the October timeline was the target under Operation Warp Speed. It was on November 9th, however—two days after Joe Biden was declared the victor—that Pfizer claimed the vaccine testing was successful. At the time, Trump accused Pfizer of trying to influence the election.
“Pfizer . . . decided to not assess the results of their vaccine, in other words, not come out with the vaccine until just after the election,” he said.
The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan also launched an investigation into this claim, according to the original Wall Street Journal report.
Denials
Dormitzer has denied the allegations, saying: “My Pfizer colleagues and I did everything we could to get the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization at the very first possible moment. Any other interpretation of my comments about the pace of the vaccine’s development would be incorrect.”
Pfizer also denied the allegations, claiming that “any allegation of impropriety is utter nonsense.”
