Social media post takes Pfizer CEO’s COVID-19 ‘rehearsal’ comment out of context

A Threads post took a year-old statement by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla out of context to say the executive recently admitted that COVID-19 was used as a test to benefit the pharmaceutical giant.

The June 19 Threads post shared a video clip of Bourla and wrote, "BREAKING: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla admitted yesterday that Covid was used as a test, while also saying that he believes that the best days of Pfizer are ahead."

The post also shared a truncated quote from Bourla: "I truly think that the best days of Pfizer are ahead of us, because Covid was for me was like a rehearsal." That quote is accurate, but omits the remainder of Bourla’s comment, which is in the video clip shared in the post and a longer video of the event.

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Bourla did not make the comment "yesterday," as the Threads post claimed. He said it Feb. 2, 2023, during a conversation at the Economic Club of Chicago. And Bourla didn’t admit that COVID-19 was a test, as the Threads post said. 

Bourla responded to a question from Spelman College President Helene Gayle, the conversation moderator, about what it was like at Pfizer’s helm in the pandemic’s wake. 

Bourla spoke about Pfizer’s 2022 successes, noting that the company’s medicines reached 1.4 billion people worldwide. Pfizer was the first drug company to have its COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in the U.S. in December 2020 and the first to get full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2021.

"All of that is great," Bourla said. "But I truly think the best days of Pfizer are ahead of us because COVID was for me like a rehearsal … how you can mobilize an organization and do the impossible possible against a main disease."

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First lady Jill Biden led a Cabinet meeting for President Joe Biden and her signature appears on presidential stationery.

"We are after cancer and many other things in the years to come," he added.

Cancer also came up earlier in the conversation. Bourla said partnering with government agencies such as the FDA and doing things differently than usual helped Pfizer develop its COVID-19 vaccine in record time and "changed the course of history."

"If we were able by working together to do that together for COVID, why we don’t do it for cancer?" Bourla said.

The Threads claim mirrors multiple debunked claims since the pandemic began that world leaders or elites planned the virus for control or financial gain. But that’s not what Bourla spoke about at the 2023 event.

We rate the claim that Bourla "admitted yesterday that Covid was used as a test" False.