https://openvaet.substack.com/p/pfizerb ... -trial-the
The software that assigned subject ID numbers for the Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trial generates ID numbers sequentially, which are assigned to volunteers when they are screened for inclusion in the study. We found 301 “gaps” in the subject ID numbers (missing numbers where there should be one), and in more than a few cases multiple sequential ID numbers in a row are missing.
Below, we start our in-depth investigation of this anomaly by reviewing how the software supervising the trial was functioning when a new subject was enrolled (“Enrollment” was the step prior to screening, where the subject was registered by the trial site, after the screening appointment had been coordinated through Pfizer’s subcontractor, ICON1).
Then we highlight why understanding this trivial detail matters as far as establishing a most concerning issue: the data of numerous subjects enrolled in the trial appears to be missing and may have been deleted.
We went in depth in verifying if the error we highlight was technically feasible and whether it could have an innocent explanation.
Why is Augusto Roux’s story terribly important here?
Well, as can be seen in the middle screenshot above, 17 subjects “disappeared” on a single day, August 21, 2020. That is by far the largest number of missing subject IDs at any site on any day. It is also the same day Augusto Roux was screened.
Since almost all subjects at the Argentina site were administered their first dose on the same day they were screened (if they passed screening), any subjects administered the first dose on that day would have been scheduled to receive their second dose three weeks later, the same date that Augusto received his, which caused him significant harm — possibly due to a bad batch.
Augusto Roux survived and was not erased from the study. Were there others, less fortunate, who were completely erased from the trial records? Or erased to cover up some problem? It’s possible. And it would not be far fetched to think that something could have gone wrong that affected 17 subjects on the same day, even 9 in a row. There was another major anomaly that occurred at the Argentina site just two days later, on August 23rd: 52 subjects on that day were given larger doses due to a preparation error and were subsequently unblinded a week later on August 31st. In the protocol deviation dataset,8 the reason given is “Dosing/administration error, subject did not receive correct dose of vaccine.” In other records there are other reasons given, but they are all product-related. We know from the trial records that 31 of them did not get the second dose, and of the 23 who did, four of them had significant adverse events recorded in the follow-up period after the second dose. So we know that there was a problem at this site that caused 52 consecutive subjects to be unblinded, which is a major screw-up and very anomalous. We also know that Augusto Roux's side effects were strangely re-defined (that is, covered up)9. In light of all this, it's reasonably to be suspicious when we see this huge anomaly of so many missing subjects on the same day that Augusto received his first dose.
The full table of 48 392 subjects (48 091 subject ids who remained, and the 301 subjects “simply deleted”), can be accessed (sorted by site & subject ID) on the following Google Spreadsheet (along with their randomization dates & treatment arm, when available)10.
Note there could very well be more subjects who have “been disappeared” (if for example a site’s last subject is 1198 but 1199 and 1200 were deleted, we would have no way to know it at this stage).
How Could Subjects Be Erased?
We can think of 3 ways in which these subjects could have been erased:
Directly in the database supervising the trial
Someone with database credentials (server, port, login, password) could have gained access, with or without ICON’s consent. Having such access would have allowed modification of any data of the trial (tests results, subjects data modification or erasing, etc.) directly to the database.
Upon the snapshot exports
In a similar fashion but leaving the “raw source data unaltered,” the .XPT data file exports or “snapshots” could have been altered, in order to fit a “predetermined result.” This would be easier to detect with an audit of the “core database” than method 1, but no such audit has ever been performed to our knowledge.
Via a request from the trial site to study sponsor
Below is a screenshot of a (redacted) request to Pfizer to delete a subject ID number originating from a trial site, which was provided to us by Pfizer whistleblower Brook Jackson. This is from the booster study, C4591031. As far as we know this request was granted. The reason given is: “SSID status was updated to SF [Screen Failure] but there is no subject attached to this subject number.” It’s unclear how this could have come about. It’s also possible this was an excuse used to delete a subject with problematic data. We don’t know. We also don’t know if the SSID would have been re-used by being assigned to another subject. But this is an example of the kind of error that might be expected to produce a handful of isolated, evenly distributed deletions.
Via the management software
The Principal Investigator on site could have been delegated “elevated privileges” allowing him or her to delete symptoms, or entire sets of subject data. If such privileges had been granted by ICON to Pfizer employees or site PIs, the only places where we could find evidence of the modifications would be the database logs & the audit trail accessible via the managing software. This constitutes, in our opinion, the most likely hypothesis, especially in light of the large number of deletions in Argentina.
Trial Sites where Subjects Disappeared
Most of the skipped subject ID’s are peppered here & there individually, and only 10 trial sites have more than 4:
9 subjects at site 1005 with 442 total subjects, Rochester Clinical Research, Inc. (Rochester, New York, USA), led investigator Matthew Davis.
5 subjects at site 1039 with 334 total subjects, Arc Clinical Research at Wilson Parke (Austin, Texas, USA), led by Gretchen Crook
5 subjects at site 1090 with 561 total subjects, M3 Wake Research, Inc (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA), led by Lisa Cohen
6 subjects at site 1109 with 557 total subjects, DeLand Clinical Research Unit (DeLand, Florida, USA), led by Bruce Rankin
6 subjects at site 1142 with 390 total subjects, University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston, Texas, USA), led by Richard Rupp
5 subjects at site 1146 with 395 total subjects, Amici Clinical Research (Rajitan, New York, USA)
8 subjects at site 1147 with 340 total subjects, Ochsner Clinic Foundation (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), led by Julia Garcia-Diaz
5 subjects at site 1166 with 107 total subjects, Rapid Medical Research, Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio, USA), led by Mary Beth Manning
5 subjects at site 1170 with 496 total subjects, North Texas Infectious Deseases Consultants, P.A. (Dallas, Texas, USA), led by Mezgebe Berhe
111 subjects (100 subjects at site 1231 with 4585 total subjects & 11 at site 4444 with 1,311 total subjects), Hospital Militar Central (Caba, Argentina), led by Fernando Polack
Such anomalies should happen extremely rarely if at all. And, if the problem was due to error, we would expect a fairly even or distribution across sites. But here we see 55% of deletions at 10 sites where only about 20% of all trial subjects were enrolled. And as we saw earlier, 37% of all deleted subjects were at a single site (Argentina) that enrolled only 12% of the trial subjects. The likelihood of such disproportionate deletions happening by chance is extremely low, far less than 1 in a million.
“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; - Exodus 20:5