Photo: Raigo Pajula
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing pharmaceutical company Pfizer, accusing it of misrepresenting the effectiveness of a widely used COVID-19 vaccine.
In the complaint filed in Lubbock County Court, Paxton said Pfizer’s claim that its vaccine is 95% effective is misleading because it offers only a “relative reduction in risk” to those who take the vaccine.
Paxton noted that the claim was based on just two months of clinical trial data and that the “absolute risk reduction” for vaccinated subjects showed the vaccine was only 0.85% effective.
The complaint states: “The pharmaceutical company’s widespread claim that its vaccine was 95% effective against the infection was highly misleading. This metric represented a calculation of the so-called relative risk reduction of vaccinated individuals in the results of Pfizer’s initial two-month clinical trials. FDA publications indicate that “relative risk reduction” is a misleading statistic that “unduly influences” consumer choice. Pfizer was also told at the time that the vaccine’s protection could not be accurately predicted beyond two months. However, Pfizer created the misleading impression that vaccine protection was permanent and withheld information that undermined its claims about how long protection lasted. And despite the fact that a clinical trial failed to measure whether the vaccine protects against transmission, Pfizer has launched a campaign to scare the public into taking the vaccine, a necessary measure to protect their loved ones.
Indeed, Pfizer’s product has not kept its promises. The number of COVID-19 cases has increased after widespread administration of the vaccine, and in some areas the percentage of deaths caused by COVID-19 has been higher in the vaccinated population than in the unvaccinated population. When the error in this product was revealed, Pfizer decided to silence those who were telling the truth.”
The complaint states: “How did Pfizer respond when it became clear that its vaccine had failed and the viability of its cash cow was at risk? Through a conspiracy to intimidate truth-tellers and censor critics. Pfizer has called those who spread facts about the vaccine criminals. They accused them of spreading false information. And this has forced social media platforms to silence those who tell the truth.”
“We seek justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were forced to take a defective product that was falsely marketed by tyrannical vaccine demands,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The facts are clear. Pfizer has not told the truth about its COVID-19 vaccines. If the Biden administration has used the pandemic as a weapon to impose unlawful public health regulations on the public and enrich pharmaceutical companies, I will use every means at my disposal to protect citizens who have been misled and harmed by Pfizer’s actions.”
The prosecutor noted that the pandemic worsened after people started taking the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
“Pfizer knowingly misrepresented the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine and censored individuals who threatened to spread the truth in order to facilitate rapid adoption of the product and expand its business opportunities,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit seeks to stop New York-based Pfizer from making false claims and suppressing “the truth” about its vaccine, and to fine the company more than $10 million for violating a Texas law that protects consumers from deceptive marketing.
According to Pfizer, more than 1.5 billion people have received this vaccine. The pharmaceutical company reported revenue of more than $74 billion in 2021 and 2022 related to COVID-19 immunization.
Pfizer said in a statement that its claims about the vaccine are “accurate and based on science” and that it believes Paxton’s lawsuit has no merit.
Pfizer also said its vaccine has “demonstrated a favorable safety profile across all age groups and helped protect against severe outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.”
Infectious disease experts have said that relative risk reduction is a more meaningful way to evaluate vaccine effectiveness than absolute risk reduction. Relative risk indicates how well the vaccine protects those who receive it compared to the study’s control group.
Paxton, a Republican, criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to fight the pandemic. Earlier this year, he began investigating whether Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson had misrepresented the effectiveness of their vaccines to examine the “scientific and ethical basis” of public health decisions about COVID-19.
The lawsuit is the second filed by Paxton against Pfizer in November. In the previous case, filed Nov. 21, Paxton accused Pfizer and a supplier of manipulating quality control tests that led to the distribution of ineffective drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
As for the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, the steps to be taken are not yet known, Reuters reports.
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2023-12-02 10:45:51
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