A federal judge in Texas has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speed up the release of documents about the COVID-19 vaccines, as sought under a public records request.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ordered the agency on Thursday to get cranking after the FDA said it could provide the estimated 450,000 pages only a little at a time.
The FDA cited a manpower shortage as the reason it could not comply more quickly to the request from a group of scientists called Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, according to The Blaze.
The agency said in court records that it has 10 staffers who handle Freedom of Information Act requests, and it would take eight minutes to scan each page line by line as part of a pre-release review.
At best, the FDA argued, it could hand over 12,000 pages this month and 500 pages a month after that.
That pace would prevent the full release of the document cache until 2097.
Pittman said that wasn’t nearly good enough.
In his order, the judge, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said the FOIA request is “of paramount public importance,” because “there may not be a ‘more important issue’” at the FDA than the pandemic, and “making sure that the American public is assured that this [vaccine] was not rush[ed].”
Pittman then bombed the FDA with quotes about the importance of open government. Among them were his quoting of a 1976 court ruling that said the FOIA was intended to “pierce the veil of administrative secrecy,” as well as a comment about 9/11 by the late GOP Sen. John McCain, who had said, “[e]xcessive administrative secrecy . . . feeds conspiracy theories and reduces the public’s confidence in the government.”
Pittman ordered the FDA to churn out at least 12,000 documents by the end of January, and then, as of March 1, to hand over at 55,000 pages every 30 days.
At that rate the documents would be released before the end of 2022.
Aaron Siri, a lawyer who represents Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, wrote on his Substack page that Pittman’s directive “is a great win for transparency and removes one of the strangleholds federal ‘health’ authorities have had on the data needed for independent scientists to offer solutions and address serious issues with the current vaccine program – issues which include waning immunity, variants evading vaccine immunity, and, as the CDC has confirmed, that the vaccines do not prevent transmission.”
Make sure you check out Tampafp.com for Politics, Tampa Area Local News, Sports, and National Headlines. Support journalism by clicking here to our GoFundMe or sign up for our free newsletter by clicking here.
Android Users, Click Here To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. It’s Free And Coming To Apple Users Soon