Pfizer just made a bunch of journalists look like real jerks
Knee-jerks.
Related highlights:
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Pfizer is definitely a member of the Trump administration’s Warp Speed program to develop a coronavirus vaccine, despite what certain journalists may say.
Markets surged Monday on the news that the pharmaceutical company is ready to petition the federal government for authorization of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the month. The vaccine's trial results showed its efficacy as high as 90%.
President Trump cheered the development, saying on social media, “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”
"HUGE NEWS,” added Vice President Mike Pence. “Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by [Trump], [Pfizer] announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trial is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers.”
This is where the story takes a weird turn.
On Monday, the New York Times published a report quoting Pfizer head of vaccine research and development Dr. Kathrin Jansen as saying, “We were never part of the Warp Speed … We have never taken any money from the U.S. government or from anyone.”
Though it is true that Pfizer did not take cash from the federal government to develop its vaccine, the company has entered into a $1.95 billion deal with the Trump administration to sell the government 100 million doses of its vaccine if completed by the end of the year.
The New York Times reported in July that Pfizer joined the Warp Speed effort. Pfizer itself announced the partnership in a press release in July.
Pfizer is definitely involved. Jansen’s quote, as presented by the New York Times, is extremely misleading, if not just outright false.
But leave it to members of our vaunted Fourth Estate to stake out the reflexively anti-Trump position that says incorrectly that Pfizer’s reported success is totally divorced from the White House’s efforts to get a vaccine to market.
CNN “fact-checker” Daniel Dale, for example, touted the New York Times quote in an attempt to dunk on right-wing radio host Mark Levin, who cheered the White House and Pfizer’s joint effort to make a COVID-19 vaccine available.
“No, Pfizer’s apparent vaccine success is not a function of Trump’s ‘Operation Warp Speed,’” reads the headline to a “fact-check” by the Washington Post’s Philip Bump.
NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett added to the same narrative, saying, “As Pence claims credit, Pfizer says it did NOT join in the administration’s partnership.”
Embarrassingly enough, after all the effort to put distance between Pfizer and Warp Speed, the pharmaceutical company itself released a statement Monday clarifying that it is definitely a member of the Trump administration initiative.
“Pfizer is proud to be one of various vaccine manufacturers participating in Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential COVID-19 vaccine,” the group said in a statement made available to the Spectator. “While Pfizer did reach an advanced purchase agreement with the US government, the company did not accept BARDA funding for the research and development process.”
It adds, “All the investment for R&D and manufacturing has been made by Pfizer at risk. Dr Jansen’s comment, which was taken out of context, was just emphasizing that last point."
Good work, everyone. Hope you all don’t feel too stupid for taking a single abbreviated quote as gospel, even despite the mountain of readily available evidence that said otherwise.
Truly, we are living in a golden era of journalism.