Nate Silver, Founder of FiveThirtyEight, recently claimed that “liberal public health elites” pressured Pfizer to delay fast-track approval of its COVID-19 vaccine until after the 2020 presidential election, denying then-President Donald Trump a political win before voters headed to the polls.
“‘Trump pushed for vaccine approvals too fast’ is the worst possible critique of the Trump administration’s COVID policy,” Silver, founder of the Disney-owned FiveThirtyEight political news and analysis website, tweeted.
According to Nate Silver referring to Operation Warp Speed, “That probably saved a lot of lives. If anything approval should have been faster.”
Silver noted that Pfizer’s decision “had the convenient side-effect of delaying any vaccine announcement until after the election” and that the story “deserves more scrutiny.”
At the time, Trump accused Pfizer of delaying the announcement until after Election Day for political reasons, which Pfizer has denied. Pfizer did make the announcement that they did create a vaccine, which they claimed at the time was over 90% effective, just a few days after the 2020 election.
It’s important to note who is claiming this now. Sites on the right made this claim a few years ago but now Nate Silver, who isn’t exactly known for right-wing values, is now claiming that health elites pressured Pfizer to delay fast tracking the vaccine to deny Trump a political win.
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