A senior Pfizer executive has admitted that the drug company did not know whether its Covid vaccine prevented transmission of the virus when it began rolling out the shots globally.
Janine Small, Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, was testifying before the European Union Parliament on Monday when she was asked the question by Dutch MEP Rob Roos.
“Was the Pfizer Covid vaccine tested on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market?” Mr Roos asked.
“If not, please say it clearly. If yes, are you willing to share the data with this committee? And I really want a straight answer, yes or no, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Ms Small — appearing in the place of Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla, who had been called to testify but pulled out of the hearing earlier this month — replied that the company had to “move at the speed of science”.
“Regarding the question around, um, did we know about stopping the immunisation [sic] before it entered the market? No, heh,” she said.
“Uh, these, um, you know, we had to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market, and from that point of view we had to do everything at risk. I think Dr Bourla, even though he’s not here, would turn around and say to you himself, ‘If not us then who?’”
Ms Small said Dr Bourla “actually felt the importance of what was going on in the world, and therefore as a result of that, we actually, um, spent $US2 billion, at risk, of self-funded money from Pfizer, to be able to research, develop and manufacture at risk, to be able to make sure that we were in a position to be able to help with the pandemic”.
Mr Roos shared a brief clip of Ms Small’s response on Twitter, describing the answer as “scandalous”.
“Millions of people worldwide felt forced to get vaccinated because of the myth that ‘you do it for others’,” he said in the video, which has been viewed more than five million times
