Dozens of congressional Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday urged top Biden officials to release unredacted copies of multi-billion-dollar coronavirus vaccine contracts that the Trump administration negotiated in secret with major pharmaceutical companies last year—and refused to divulge to lawmakers.
In a letter (pdf) to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 50 lawmakers from the House and Senate argue that public knowledge of the specific terms of the vaccine contracts “has become all the more important as manufacturers talk of boosters and seasonal immunizations, while considering ‘post-pandemic’ price increases.”
“Taxpayers should know how their funds were spent and what secret deals were reached.”
—Rep. Lloyd Doggett
“Taxpayers are serving as the angel investors in Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutic development, assuming the costs and risk,” the letter reads. “It is imperative that they also receive a stake in the outcome as well as complete transparency on how billions of tax dollars have been spent and what terms were agreed to and may still be renegotiated.”