Eric Lander, the top White House scientist who recently resigned amid accusations of workplace bullying, held on to large quantities of stock in COVID-19 vaccine-maker BioNTech while promoting vaccinations without disclosing his stake.
Lander had 90 days from his confirmation in May 2021 to divest his stocks, and, while he unloaded the bulk of them in June, he waited to sell the BioNTech shares, worth $500,000 to $1 million, until Aug. 5, according to Politico. BioNTech, with partner company Pfizer, developed the first authorized vaccine against COVID-19. By the time Lander sold off the remaining BioNTech shares, they were priced at $404.92 a share, an increase of more than $50 from two days prior.
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His position in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet and as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy consisted of promoting the administration’s efforts to get people vaccinated. He did so in op-eds published in the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, in which he wrote, “Coronavirus vaccines can end the current pandemic if enough people choose to protect themselves and their loved ones by getting vaccinated.”
Biden officials maintain that Lander’s promotion of vaccines during a pandemic does not constitute an ethics violation.
“Your reporting shows Eric was fully legally compliant,” an Office of Science and Technology Policy spokesperson told Politico. “The law is clear — and conversations and opinion pieces telling people they should get vaccinated during a global pandemic are not even close to an ethics concern.”
Still, government watchdog groups said the delayed divestment raises questions about flaws in the White House’s ethics pledges. For instance, Delaney Marsco, the senior legal counsel on ethics at the watchdog Campaign Legal Center, said the situation looked “unsavory.”
“I don’t think you have the most senior scientist in the administration during a pandemic invested in a certain vaccine maker. It looks like something he should have divested immediately,” Marsco told Politico.
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Lander, who did not disclose his financial holdings to the Boston Globe or the Washington Post, was the wealthiest person in Biden’s Cabinet, with over $45 million in assets when he was nominated, Wall Street Journal reporting found.
Biden accepted Lander’s resignation on Monday to go into effect on Feb. 18 after a two-month-long internal investigation into allegations that he bullied and mistreated his subordinates was made public. Christina Peele, the White House’s deputy director of management and administration for personnel, said she had found “credible evidence” that Lander had fostered a toxic work environment. His treatment of staff put him in the crosshairs of Biden’s pledge to fire anyone who abused their staff “on the spot.”
