[Sooner or later]

Is this the one you are talking about? Or one of the other wild azz articles.

His statement that they "abandoned the control group " lacks context.

When the trials showed great success in reducing hospitalizations and deaths they went back and asked the placebo group if they wanted the vaccine.

A lot of those people were in the high risk category. Of course they would have wanted the vaccine. How ethical would it have been to deny them future use of the vaccine?

Yes, it can hurt long term followup within the group. Though, not all within the the entire placebo group received the vaccine. Only one group of many was mentioned. How many in other groups elected to move out of the placebo group?

They didn't do it to hide future problems. It wasn't some nefarious act.