FDA Proposes 55-Year Plan for Releasing Data on Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine

In response to a request for data about the approval of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a plan to release 500 of the 329,000 pages of related documents each month.

The data request came from Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, which argued that "basic liberty and government transparency demand that the documents and data" be released as quickly as possible. The group asked that the FDA release the documents over the next 108 days — the same amount of time it took the FDA to review data before licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Under the FDA's proposed schedule, the documents wouldn't fully be released until 2076; the FDA said that plan is "consistent with processing schedules entered by courts across the country." Judges have previously ruled that in matters of "considerable public importance," federal agencies need to produce documents at faster rates. A district judge scheduled a conference for next month to consider a timeline for processing the documents.

Other than several right-rated outlets, the news wasn't reported prominently, and the few reports across the spectrum often differed considerably. Coverage from the right often questioned why the data release should take so long, and framed the FDA's argument as an example of why people don't trust the government or public health authorities. An article from fact-checking website Snopes (Lean Left bias) framed the narrative that the FDA wanted 55 years to release the data as misleading.