Public Health: Did Pfizer claim its vaccine would prevent Covid-19? Yes.

Summary

This week, a Pfizer executive, testifying in the European Parliament, was asked if Pfizer tested their vaccine in regard to preventing transmission of the Covid-19 infection. Her answer was “No” – Pfizer had not tested whether their vaccine prevented the transmission of getting Covid-19.

Previously, public health authorities and others mandated that persons be vaccinated to prevent transmission to others. However, since the vaccine did not stop transmission, the reasons for vaccine mandates were false. Many people were fired because they chose not to be vaccinated.

Pfizer’s Original Claim

From Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an Unapproved Product
Review Memorandum filed with the U.S. FDA to request approval of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer.

On November 20, 2020, the Sponsor (Pfizer, on behalf of Pfizer and BioNTech) submitted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) request to FDA for an investigational COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) intended to prevent COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The vaccine is based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (S) antigen encoded by RNA and formulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). The proposed use under an EUA is “for active immunization for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 16 years of age and older.” The proposed dosing regimen is 2 doses, 30 µg each, administered 21 days apart.

The EUA request includes safety and efficacy data from an ongoing Phase 3 randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled trial of BNT162b2 in approximately 44,000 participants. The primary efficacy endpoint is incidence of COVID-19 among participants without evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection before or during the 2-dose vaccination regimen. In a mid-November analysis of 36,621 participants randomized 1:1 to vaccine or placebo who were included in the per-protocol efficacy analysis population of participants without evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to 7 days after completion of the vaccination regimen, efficacy in preventing confirmed COVID-19 occurring at least 7 days after the second dose of vaccine was 95.0%, with 8 COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group and 162 COVID-19 cases in the placebo group. Subgroup analyses of the primary efficacy endpoint showed similar efficacy point estimates across age groups, genders, racial and ethnic groups, and participants with medical comorbidities associated with high risk of severe COVID-19. Secondary efficacy analyses suggested benefit of the vaccine in preventing severe COVID-19 and in preventing COVID-19 following the first dose, although available data for these outcomes did not allow for firm conclusions

The wording in Pfizer’s FDA filing summary claimed 95% efficacy in preventing confirmed Covid-19.

In their final summary, at the end of the filing, they instead said the vaccine prevented “serious or life-threatening” disease. But then again, on page 55, in their concluding sentence, they wrote:

The review team therefore recommends issuance of an EUA for use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 16 years of age and older.

And on social media, Pfizer posted that stopping “transmission is our highest priority”.

Why is this Controversial?

On October 11, 2022, Robert Roos, a Member of the European Parliament asked Janine Small, Pfizer President of International Markets, if their vaccine was tested to prevent transmission of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Her answer was “No”, the vaccine was not tested to prevent transmission.

What this means

Pfizer’s filing, in its executive summary, makes an implied claim that its vaccine would prevent transmission and prevent getting Covid-19.

In testimony to the European Parliament, Pfizer President of International Markets, Janine Smith, said that they had not tested the vaccine for preventing transmission.

Their own FDA filing, however, as well as many social media posts from Pfizer, unambiguously said their vaccine prevented transmission.

Both claims cannot be true.

It appears, without much wiggle room, that Pfizer misspoke or lied, and public health authorities communicated this false claim to the public, repeatedly saying that getting vaccinated would prevent transmission of the disease.

These lies were used as the basis for vaccination mandates. Those that did not get vaccinated frequently lost their jobs, were prohibited from international travel and even today, are prohibited from attending various public events. My local hospital fired almost 200 people for not getting vaccinated; today they have a shortage of staff.

Lies ruin confidence in public health.

For some of us, the past 2 1/2 years have resulted in a loss of trust in public health and in science itself. The damage to the credibility of health and science will not be restored in my lifetime.

Update

The AP attempts to fact check this story with this bit of word smithing – Pfizer did not claim, they said, to have tested the impact of its vaccine on transmission. Even though in their own filing, above, Pfizer made the claim that it prevented transmission.

AP gets 4 Pinocchio’s for a fake fact check.

This is possibly the worst “fact check” ever done by a media outlet.

Nope – Reuters attempts to outdo the AP: Fact Check-Preventing transmission never required for COVID vaccines’ initial approval; Pfizer vax did reduce transmission of early variants | Reuters

Their headline admits that the Covid vaccine was not tested to prevent transmission and this was not required for approval, and then claims that it may be reduced transmission of early variants.

The lack of skeptical inquiry in the neo-Media and rubber stamping “authorities” has turned the media into a dystopian propaganda arm of government. It is no longer possible to believe a single word from the media – and then they will wonder why conspiracy theories flourish.

I no longer believe nor listen to public health experts, nor do I pay much attention to media stories on public health topics and even much science, now. They have likely lost me for the rest of my life.