House Judiciary Probing Claims That Biden Admin Pressured FDA to Rush COVID-19 Booster Approvals

A COVID-19 vaccine is prepared in Boston, Mass., on March 4, 2021. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

The House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into whether the Biden administration pressured the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed up its approvals of COVID-19 booster shots.

In three April 10 letters to current and former FDA officials, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust—requested all records and materials relating to the agency’s review, approval, and promotion of all COVID-19 vaccines and boosters in addition to those regarding the departures of Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Philip Krause from the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR).

The letters were first obtained by The Daily Caller.

“The Committee on the Judiciary is investigating allegations that the Biden Administration interfered in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization and licensure of the COVID-19 vaccines,” Massie wrote in a letter addressed to Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER).

“According to reports, two top FDA vaccine officials, Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Philip Krause, resigned in the wake of President Biden’s premature and rushed announcement in August 2021 calling for adults to receive a COVID-19 booster shot, which put undue pressure on FDA health officials to quickly authorize the vaccinations,” he noted.

Prior to their exits, Gruber and Krause—the other two letter recipients—served as the director and deputy director of the OVRR. Upon Gruber’s exit, Marks took over as acting director.

As for the reasons behind the departure of the two doctors, emails obtained and released last July by the nonprofit Judicial Watch show that Gruber had voiced concerns that drug companies and the Biden administration were pressuring the FDA to accelerate its review and authorization of the vaccines, proposing timelines that “make no sense.”

Additionally, following their August 2021 resignations, Gruber and Krause authored an article (pdf)—published in September 2021 by The Lancet—that argued against widespread COVID-19 booster shots, which they said the evidence did not support a need for and could be risky if introduced too soon or too frequently.

Noting this in his Monday letters to the former officials, Massie asserted that President Joe Biden had broken his administration’s previous pledge to “listen to science,” “ensure public health decisions are informed by public health professionals,” and “promote trust, transparency, common purpose, and accountability in our government.”

“President Biden broke his promise when it came to COVID-19 vaccines, most notably when it came to boosters, urging boosters from the White House bully pulpit before the boosters received FDA authorization,” the congressman wrote.

Citing Biden’s August 2021 assertions that the boosters would be available by mid-September, if not sooner, Massie noted, “At the time of President Biden’s statements, however, the FDA was still reportedly ‘racing to collect and analyze data’ to assess the ‘safety and efficacy of booster shots.’”

In addition to records relating to the vaccines’ authorization and the doctors’ departures, Massie also requested a list of all current and former OVRR employees from Jan. 1, 2020, to present.

The Epoch Times has contacted the FDA for comment.

The Judiciary Committee’s investigation follows a similar inquiry launched last month by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, a new panel of the Oversight and Accountability Committee.

In that probe, the FDA was given until March 24 to provide documents and transcribed testimony from Gruber, Krause, Marks, and FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock.