CLAIM: Animal studies for COVID-19 vaccines were “stopped” because the animals were dying.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. None of the manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. reported that preclinical testing was halted because of such animal safety concerns. The Texas state senator who made the assertion provided no evidence to support that claim.
THE FACTS: A Texas lawmaker’s remarks from last year are gaining renewed attention on social media and spreading the erroneous claim that COVID-19 vaccine studies on animals were halted due to safety issues.
A one-minute clip of Texas state Sen. Bob Hall’s comments circulated widely on Twitter again in recent days.
The video is from a May 2021 hearing in which Hall claimed that the “American people are now the guinea pigs.”
“What I have read, they actually started the animal tests and because the animals were dying, they stopped the tests,” Hall, a Republican, said. He later continued: “They didn’t do the human testing and they stopped the animal tests because the animals were dying, and then they turned it out for the public.”
That’s wrong, and similar to other debunked claims alleging that animal studies for the vaccines were “skipped.”
“The claim is completely false,” a Food and Drug Administration spokesperson, Veronika Pfaeffle, told The Associated Press in an email regarding Hall’s comments. “All authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccines underwent animal studies.”
Hall’s office did not return requests for comment....
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