You need to look more closely at the experimental design. It's not traditional. The combined the phase 1, 2, and 3 trials into the same trial. On clinicaltrials.gov, it's all the same trial. In fact, after the phase 3 interim data was used to get the EUAs, they converted to an open label design and gave the people in the placebo group the vaccine too. They're a second cohort. And when they added the kids to the cohort and when they started screening boosters, they added those to the same trial as well, all running in parallel with the same study design. That's true for both Pfizer and Moderna. It's tough to follow all of this because the data doesn't get published in peer-reviewed journals for >6 months after they make the press release, but that's what's going on. It's an ongoing and evolving trial.

Honestly, from a purely medical perspective, the idea has merit. It cuts a lot of the bullshit out of the process when you need results fast, as in an emerging disease. However, the scientist in me remembers how many of these drugs fail during phase 1 and 2, and that's why we do separate the phases normally, and probably why it's especially important during a crisis when people are panicking that the system maintain it's safeguards.