Opin­ion: Pfiz­er, BioN­Tech did­n't take US gov­ern­men­t's sup­port to de­vel­op their vac­cine. Let's stop rewrit­ing the facts

Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech de­clined to take R&D or man­u­fac­tur­ing fund­ing from the US gov­ern­ment for their Covid-19 vac­cine — and they’ve been pret­ty loud in say­ing that.

But months af­ter their shot won emer­gency ap­proval — with mil­lions of Amer­i­cans now vac­ci­nat­ed — there’s a rewrit­ing of his­to­ry on­go­ing that would make it ap­pear Pfiz­er took help from the gov­ern­ment. The im­pli­ca­tions of that nar­ra­tive re­tool­ing could have a big im­pact on pub­lic per­cep­tion and pol­i­cy in the com­ing months.

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