A former employee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) whose job it was to inspect vaccine manufacturing plants told Vanity Fair last week that when the FDA ignored his allegations of gross safety violations at a Merck vaccine plant, he blew the whistle — only to be ignored.

Coming amid growing concerns over the safety of COVID vaccines, which are being rushed to market at unprecedented speed, the newly revealed allegations raise questions about how the FDA will oversee safety at COVID vaccine manufacturing operations.

According to Vanity Fair, "the unprecedented effort to actually make the more than 300 million doses that a successful national vaccination effort will require has gotten less attention" than issues related to the safety and efficacy of the actual vaccines themselves.

"Vital questions about the FDA's inspections of vaccine plants have slipped under the radar," the magazine reported.

Vanity Fair, the first to report on the whistleblower complaint, focused on concerns related exclusively to the manufacturing process. The article dismissed concerns about the actual safety of the vaccine.