Zantac Lawsuit

Zantac Lawsuit

Researching drug company and regulatory malfeasance for over 16 years
Humanist, humorist

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Pfizer Double-Down With Children Promo and Accusations



On Nov 1, Pfizer published a video featuring children on their Twitter page. The video (below) shows children who are thanking all the children who enrolled in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, the results of which saw authorisation given by the FDA, despite protestations from safety consumer groups. It's unknown if the children who appear in the short video are child actors.

In the main, the reaction to the video was one of discontent from members of the public. One commentator wrote, "This is one the sickest things I’ve seen in a long time … but from the most fined company in human history I guess I shouldn’t expect any better."

I, myself, drew attention to Pfizer's past history regarding children, in particular a trial carried out in Africa in 1996.

This from The Guardian Aug 2011 

"Pfizer was sued after 11 children died in a clinical trial when the northern state of Kano was hit by Africa's worst ever meningitis epidemic in 1996. A hundred children were given an experimental oral antibiotic called Trovan, while a further hundred received ceftriaxone, the "gold-standard" treatment of modern medicine.

"Five children died on Trovan and six on ceftriaxone. But later it was claimed that Pfizer did not have proper consent from parents to use an experimental drug on their children and questions were raised over the documentation of the trial."

The lawsuit took over 15 years for Pfizer to settle, surprising then that they would use children to promote the safety and efficacy of a relatively new product of theirs.

BMJ ARTICLE

Pfizer chiefs were left red-faced after an investigative piece appeared in the BMJ (2 November 2021) raising serious concerns about poor practices at a contract research company (Ventavia) helping to carry out Pfizer’s pivotal covid-19 vaccine trial.

Armed with information from a whistleblower, investigative journalist, Paul D Thacker, highlighted:

  • Participants placed in a hallway after injection and not being monitored by clinical staff
  • Lack of timely follow-up of patients who experienced adverse events
  • Protocol deviations not being reported
  • Vaccines not being stored at proper temperatures
  • Mislabelled laboratory specimens, and
  • Targeting of Ventavia staff for reporting these types of problems.

Pfizer remained quiet after the BMJ article surfaced...but not for long.

On Nov 9, they tweeted out a meme accompanied with the following message, "It’s easy to get distracted by misinformation these days, but don’t worry…Science has got your back."

Because of the backlash received from their 'Superheroes' video, Pfizer blocked any public comments on this one.

It seems odd that Pfizer would engage in such a way. History shows that when any drug company comes under fire for falsifying clinical trial information (albeit by proxy) they usually remain quiet. Pfizer doubling-down here is a rare move.

It seems this is the way in which Pfizer are going to tackle critics of their vaccine.

'PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS'

On the same day they launched the meme via Twitter, CNBC published an interview with Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla. They eye-catching headline from CNBC reads:


Berkeley Lovelace Jr, the journalist who authored the piece, wrote:

People who spread misinformation on Covid-19 vaccines are “criminals” and have cost “millions of lives,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday.

Speaking with Washington D.C.-based think tank Atlantic Council, Bourla said there is a “very small” group of people that purposefully circulate misinformation on the shots, misleading those who are already hesitant about getting vaccinated.

“Those people are criminals,” he told Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe. “They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.”

This, to me at least, is yet another rarity. Some would suggest that Bourla is concerned about the whistleblower findings published in the BMJ and is deflecting here.

It's a strange allegation to make given that Pfizer, in 2009, agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products.

At the time, Mike Loucks, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, had this to say:

"Pfizer violated the law over an extensive time period. Furthermore, at the very same time Pfizer was in our office negotiating and resolving the allegations of criminal conduct by its then newly acquired subsidiary, Warner-Lambert, Pfizer was itself in its other operations violating those very same laws."

Pot, kettle, and black anyone?

Bob Fiddaman



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