Facebook and TikTok posts viewed thousands of times claim that the wife of top US COVID-19 advisor Anthony Fauci is the acting head of the US Food and Drug Administration and "approved the Pfizer vaccine". The claims are false; Christine Grady is the chief of bioethics at the US National Institutes for Health, which was not involved in the approval of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.
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"When you realize that Christine Grady, the new FDA acting head who approved the Pfizer vaccine is Anthony Fauci's wife…" reads a Facebook post from September 1.
A screenshot of the false claim shared on Facebook, taken September 16, 2021
The claims appear to originate from this Tik Tok video, which has more than 59,000 likes.
Similar Facebook posts also shared a screenshot from the video here, here and here.
However, the claims are false.
Grady is married to Fauci, who is President Biden's chief medical advisor on the pandemic and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. The couple have three children.
However, she is not acting head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but chief of bioethics at the US National Institutes for Health (NIH).
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The current acting head of the FDA is Janet Woodcock, who took up the position in January, according to the FDA website.
The FDA, which is responsible for approving vaccines in the United States, told the Associated Press (AP) in May that Grady had no input in the Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 vaccines.
"Dr. Grady does not approve the conduct of any research protocol and she has no input into the FDA process for issuing EUAs," the FDA said.
According to the FDA website, the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) is responsible for approving vaccine candidates for use in the United States and is headed by Peter Marks.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was given full FDA approval in August after it was granted an EUA last December.
In a press release announcing the approval, Woodcock said the jab met "the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires".
"While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated," she said.
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Fauci has been targeted by a wave of misinformation since the COVID-19 outbreak.