A former FDA inspector accused the agency of downplaying safety problems at a Merck plant tapped to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The whistleblower alleged that a 2018 inspection uncovered evidence that employees in the facility in Durham, N.C.engaged in a host of unsanitary practices. A letter to President Biden from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel regarding the Merck plant accuses the company of hiding evidence of employees urinating and defecating in their uniforms rather than taking restroom breaks, which would have required them to leave the manufacturing area and change uniforms.
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