Pfizer accused of delaying vaccine results to sway 2020 election
Internal documents reveal Pfizer could have released vaccine results before the 2020 election—but didn’t.
In the final months of the 2020 US election, Donald Trump was trailing in the polls and banking on the announcement of a Covid-19 vaccine to boost public confidence and revive his re-election campaign.
Trump had promised that a vaccine could arrive “sooner than the end of the year… maybe even sooner than the November 3 election.”
The effort, known as “Operation Warp Speed,” became one of his administration’s flagship initiatives.
But the announcement didn’t arrive in time.
Pfizer went public on 9 November—six days after the election was called for Joe Biden—reporting that its vaccine was more than 90% effective.
Trump was furious.
“Pfizer and the others would only announce a vaccine after the election because they didn’t have the courage to do it before [the election],” he wrote on X, implying the company had delayed the data for political reasons.
Now, the timing of that announcement is under congressional investigation.Did Pfizer deliberately hold back its trial results to influence the election?
That’s the question at the heart of a federal probe led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
On 15 May 2025, Jordan wrote to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, demanding internal documents and communications related to the company’s decision-making.
The request followed testimony from pharmaceutical rival GSK, where former Pfizer executive Dr Philip Dormitzer now works.
Dormitzer allegedly told colleagues at GSK that, during his time at Pfizer, senior researchers had made a calculated decision to “deliberately slow down clinical testing so that it would not be complete prior to the results of the presidential election that year.”
After Trump’s re-election in 2024, Dormitzer reportedly became “visibly upset” and requested a transfer to Canada, saying he feared being investigated by the new administration over his role in delaying the vaccine data, GSK told the committee.
When asked why, Dormitzer allegedly said, “Let’s just say it wasn’t a coincidence, the timing of the vaccine.”
Dormitzer’s words are only the beginning. The strongest evidence lies in Pfizer’s own internal records, which reveal when the company reached key trial milestones—and how it chose not to act.