On Monday, the director of “Media Intelligence” at Media Matters, Lis Power, was accused of deceptively editing a clip from Fox News, implying that host Dana Perino argued that the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine was too hasty.
“Fox responded to FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine by asking if it was rushed,” Power tweeted, including the supposed quote from Perino, “FDA just giving full approval to Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, it’s the first vaccine to get that full approval and in record time too, that has critics asking if the process was rushed. Was it?”
Fox responded to FDA's full approval of the Pfizer vaccine by asking if it was rushed
"FDA just giving full approval to Pfizer's COVID vaccine, it's the first vaccine to get that full approval and in record time too, that has critics asking if the process was rushed. Was it?" pic.twitter.com/gadMyxB4vY
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 23, 2021
However, as many quickly pointed out on social media, the clip was immediately followed by a guest who clearly argued in favor of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and the approval process.
“Speaking of promoting misinformation,” tweeted Arthur Schwartz, “Media Matters hack [Lis Power] deceptively edits this Dana Perino clip to claim she’s attacking FDA vaccine approval. She’s lying, again. The full clip shows Dana’s guest saying Americans should feel more confident about taking vaccine.”
Speaking of promoting misinformation:
Media Matters hack @LisPower1 deceptively edits this Dana Perino clip to claim she’s attacking FDA vaccine approval. She’s lying, again. The full clip shows Dana’s guest saying Americans should feel more confident about taking vaccine. https://t.co/o6zwaItdts pic.twitter.com/Z5vfN84ohB— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 23, 2021
Speaking with Admiral Brett Giroir, former Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary and “former Coronavirus testing czar,” Perino asked Giroir to “tell us a little bit, sir, about what this moment means to get full approval.”
“Well this is a very big moment in Operation Warp Speed history and the history of our vaccines, our fight against the pandemic,” Giroir responded. “Prior to this, we had ‘Emergency Use’ authorization. What that really meant is that the public health benefits outweighed the known and potential harms.”
“What this says today is we know the benefits, we know the harms, and this vaccine is safe and effective, and every confidence can be given to that,” Giroir continued. “Americans should feel very good — even better than they did yesterday — about getting the vaccine.”
A few hours after her original post, Power tweeted, “As people are noting, the guest in the segment stated that full approval means that people can be confident that the vaccines are safe and effective.”
“That doesn’t negate that the immediate framing was ‘critics asking if the process was rushed,’” she added.
As The Daily Wire reported, “The Food and Drug Administration issued full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday morning, marking the first time a vaccine against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic has been given the stamp of approval from regulators.”
“The vaccine, which was granted FDA emergency use authorization in December, will now be marketed under the name Comirnaty for Americans 16-years-old or older,” the report added.
“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock in a statement.