Albert Bourla heralded the president’s COVID-19 leadership and Operation Warp Speed initiative as a Nobel Prize–worthy achievement and said that Pfizer stands by the integrity of the data already shared.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said President Donald Trump’s COVID vaccine leadership during the pandemic years is an accomplishment typically worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, after the president called for the pharma and others to “justify the success of their various COVID drugs” in a social media post.
On Monday, Trump posted on his Truth Social account demanding that drug companies—with Pfizer being the only one called out by name—release information that shows how successful the Operation Warp Speed project was.
“With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” Trump wrote. “I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???”
The president continued: “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it.”
In a rare move, Pfizer posted a statement from Bourla addressing the post. “The success of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) and U.S. development of mRNA vaccines is a profound public health achievement. Under President Trump’s leadership, American innovation led the world, helping prevent economic collapse and saving more than 14 million lives globally.”
Bourla also heralded the improvement in mRNA technology that has now led to breakthroughs in cancer research. “Such an accomplishment would typically be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, given its significant impact,” Bourla wrote.
The CEO acknowledged the president’s call for transparency and noted that data for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has appeared in more than 600 peer-reviewed journals. He also included a link to a cache of releases from Pfizer’s COVID-19 portfolio and pledged to share more data on the newest vaccine strain that was recently approved by the FDA.
“We stand by the integrity of our data, remain committed to openly sharing information from our ongoing trials, and will continue to maintain the trust of patients, health authorities, and the public,” Bourla concluded.
Bourla’s response comes a day after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that blamed chronic diseases for the U.S.’s disproportionate share of the worldwide COVID-19 death toll, without citing evidence to support his claim. He also decried the nation’s response to the pandemic, particularly social distancing, masks on children, school closures and “boosters for healthy children.”
The public dialogue also follows a series of memos sent by Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Vinay Prasad to COVID vaccine makers describing the new restrictions given with the FDA approvals of the latest seasonal updates.
The debate over COVID vaccines and other pandemic measures is at the core of the mistrust of public health agencies, Kennedy argued in his op-ed. “President Trump has asked me to restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.” Trump’s post echoed the need to reform the CDC, suggesting that the agency is “being ripped apart over this question” of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment efficacy. He said drug companies “go off to the next ‘hunt’ and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC.”
