Moderna, Pfizer CEOs Skip White House COVID Vaccine Summit After Leaking Data To Biden

Despite repeatedly pledging to be apolitical, Pfizer and Moderna have been criticized for waiting to release their ‘Phase 3’ trial data until just days after the Nov. 3 vote, while shooting down Trump’s insistence that a vaccines would be approved in a matter of weeks as extreme hyperbole, if not an outright lie.

More than a month later, Pfizer and Moderna have revealed that they remain in close contact with the Biden team. As it turns out, Biden may have been briefed on the initial Pfizer and Moderna data before President Trump, even though, at that point, Biden’s victory had been decided by the media, and the media alone, STAT News reports.

Now, both Pfizer and Moderna are skipping a White House vaccine summit, despite taking billions in taxpayer dollars for their vaccines. Unlike Moderna, which benefited directly from “Operation Warp Speed” funds, Pfizer self-financed the development of the vaccine, before striking a deal with OWS to supply the US with millions of doses.

Both companies, and their executives, have benefited from these Trump Administration programs. But now, it seems, they’re trying to send a message to the public: The Trump Administration doesn’t deserve credit for the vaccines.

The summit, first reported last week, has been derided by the Administration’s critics as a PR stunt intended to try and ‘take credit’ for rolling out COVID-19 vaccines.

It’s not the first time that Pfizer, in particular, has tried to distance itself from Operation Warp Speed. Back on Nov. 10, Kathrin Jansen, a Pfizer executive, attempted to distance the company from OWS by insisting Pfizer had never taken any money from it, a line the company has continued to repeat, despite striking the deal noted above. It sure is a lot easier to bootstrap vaccine development when you’re a resource-rich pharma giant like Pfizer, and you know you can fall back on $1.95BN from the federal government right out the gate.

Other companies involved in vaccine distribution logistics, but not in vaccine development itself, are still expected to attend, including FedEx, UPS, CVS, Walgreens, and McKesson. Though most will likely send lower-ranking executives as opposed to their CEOs.

Additionally, Peter Marks, the FDA official in charge of overseeing vaccine approvals, might attend, though the FDA is reportedly “uneasy” about the political connotations.

And the Democrats complain that Trump has been “sabotaging” the transition – yet, executives tacitly aligned with his political opponents won’t even deign to meet with the president and his team.