FOIA request used to falsely accuse FDA of hiding vaccine data

A group of scientists submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about COVID-19 vaccine data which amounted to around 329,000 pages. The FDA proposed a schedule to release 500 pages each month to allow the 10 employees currently handling FOIA requests time to process the documents. Several viral social media posts are now claiming that the FDA is purposely delaying and suppressing vaccine data. FOIA requests have been used many times in the past to cripple the capacity of federal and state health agencies working on controversial topics, such as tobacco control and gun safety. FOIA requests are a critical tool in a functioning democracy, helping to keep government operations transparent and accountable. However, FOIA requests can be “weaponized” and can require significant resources to be pulled from other essential operations.

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