> I wonder if anyone will even notice though as it would require putting energy into criticizing anything other than the election
Not really; they seem to have gone out of their way to be election-relevant:
> The first analysis was to occur after 32 volunteers — both those who received the vaccine and those on placebo — had contracted Covid-19. If fewer than six volunteers in the group who received the vaccine had developed Covid-19, the companies would make an announcement that the vaccine appeared to be effective. The study would continue until at least 164 cases of Covid-19 — individuals with at least one symptom and a positive test result — had been reported.
> In their announcement of the results, Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a surprise. The companies said they had decided not to conduct the 32-case analysis “after a discussion with the FDA.” Instead, they planned to conduct the analysis after 62 cases. But by the time the plan had been formalized, there had been 94 cases of Covid-19 in the study.
> Gruber said that Pfizer and BioNTech had decided in late October that they wanted to drop the 32-case interim analysis. At that time, the companies decided to stop having their lab confirm cases of Covid-19 in the study, instead leaving samples in storage. The FDA was aware of this decision. Discussions between the agency and the companies concluded, and testing began this past Wednesday.
So they had a plan in place to release interim results as soon as 32 cases were detected, but then in late October they decided they wanted to alter the plan. And just to make sure the original plan couldn't happen no matter what, they also stopped their ongoing testing, choosing to resume it on November 4th, when they learned they had dramatically exceeded their revised goals.
Not really; they seem to have gone out of their way to be election-relevant:
> The first analysis was to occur after 32 volunteers — both those who received the vaccine and those on placebo — had contracted Covid-19. If fewer than six volunteers in the group who received the vaccine had developed Covid-19, the companies would make an announcement that the vaccine appeared to be effective. The study would continue until at least 164 cases of Covid-19 — individuals with at least one symptom and a positive test result — had been reported.
> In their announcement of the results, Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a surprise. The companies said they had decided not to conduct the 32-case analysis “after a discussion with the FDA.” Instead, they planned to conduct the analysis after 62 cases. But by the time the plan had been formalized, there had been 94 cases of Covid-19 in the study.
> Gruber said that Pfizer and BioNTech had decided in late October that they wanted to drop the 32-case interim analysis. At that time, the companies decided to stop having their lab confirm cases of Covid-19 in the study, instead leaving samples in storage. The FDA was aware of this decision. Discussions between the agency and the companies concluded, and testing began this past Wednesday.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pf...
So they had a plan in place to release interim results as soon as 32 cases were detected, but then in late October they decided they wanted to alter the plan. And just to make sure the original plan couldn't happen no matter what, they also stopped their ongoing testing, choosing to resume it on November 4th, when they learned they had dramatically exceeded their revised goals.