Florida Sues Pfizer, Alleging COVID Vaccine Safety and Transmission Claims Were Deceptive
Updated
“Pfizer’s marketing campaign that drove record-breaking profits rested on deception and falsehoods,” according to a lawsuit filed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier against Pfizer for the way the company promoted its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and the company made false and deceptive claims about the vaccine’s safety, and about the need to take it to protect others, despite knowledge that those claims were not supported.
The first claim is that Pfizer knew there were safety concerns related to myocarditis and pericarditis for boys under 18, pregnant women, strokes, and death while Bourla made definitive claims about safety. The lawsuit includes seven instances of safety claims by Bourla or Pfizer from November 2020 to as late as January 18, 2023 when Bourla said, “We’ve seen not a single [safety] signal although we have distributed billions of doses.”
The second claim is that Pfizer conducted a successful “pressure campaign” to insist Floridians had a “moral duty” to take the vaccine and protect those who “they love the most,” despite having not tested the vaccine to determine if it stops transmission. “The lawsuit says Bourla later described that as the argument that ‘mostly works,’ and treats the remark as an acknowledgment that the moral-duty pitch played a strong role in driving demand.”
Florida is requesting Pfizer to pay civil penalties of $10,000 for each violation of a state consumer-protection law, or $15,000 where a senior or person with a disability was targeted. The state is also seeking disgorgement of profits it says flowed from the campaign. This number could reach billions of dollars if the judge ties a share of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine revenue to the statements, but the money would go to the state rather than individual Floridians who received the shot.
Pfizer issued a statement and said the allegations have no merit. “The representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based, and the company stands behind the safety and efficacy of its vaccine.”
The complaint begins with, “those people are criminals,” which is a quote from Bourla in a November 9, 2021 interview about people who raised safety concerns. The lawsuit later explains that those “criminals” were right on the basis that Pfizer allegedly had knowledge of safety concerns while it was actively attempting to hide the information from the public.
Military and Israeli reports of myocarditis and pericarditis in young males are cited along with a June 2021 FDA warning, and a February 2022 Pfizer document that acknowledges increased cases “particularly in adolescents and young adults.” Adolescents had a very low risk of death and hospitalization from COVID-19. The CDC shows ages 5-17 had a death rate one-tenth of those aged 18-29 and one-35th of the rate for ages 30-39. The lawsuit states that by February 28, 2021, Pfizer’s database held 158,893 adverse events from 42,086 case reports, including 1,223 fatalities.
The lawsuit describes a 2020 rat study where the full information was released publicly in November 2022, after litigation, in which vaccinated animals had fetal malformations and an implantation-failure rate more than double controls. It says that by February 28, 2021, Pfizer had reports on 458 pregnant women, 248 of whom reported an adverse event and 52 a miscarriage, nearly all in the first trimester. The current Comirnaty label states there are no available data on use before 24 weeks to inform risks of major birth defects and miscarriage.
In January 2023, CDC and FDA surveillance flagged a possible link between the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster and strokes for people 65 and older. An FDA analysis found people 85 and older who received a flu shot and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine had a 20% higher stroke risk. Just days after this link was known, Bourla said there was “not a single signal” associated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines during a CNBC interview.
The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer used its moral pressure campaign as a marketing ploy even though the FDA’s December 11, 2020 authorization states there was no “evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person.” Bourla made conflicting statements on the matter. On December 3, 2020, he said the issue of vaccinated people spreading the virus “needs to be examined. Just a few days after the vaccine received FDA authorization, Bourla said the choice to not vaccinate “will affect the lives of others and likely the lives of people you love the most.”
The alleged pressure campaign didn’t just target adults and parents, but also created an Avengers comic book to convince kids that “Everyday heroes don’t wear capes, but they do wear a small bandage on their upper arm after they get their latest COVID-19 vaccination.” The comic book depicts children stating “the Avengers are doing their part to help keep us safe, now it’s time for us to do ours by staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.”
“While Pfizer hectored consumers about their moral duty to get vaccinated to stop the spread of COVID-19, Pfizer knew that it had not even tested the vaccine’s effect on transmission,” the lawsuit says. “Pfizer’s conduct misled Florida consumers when they were making some of the most sensitive health decisions of their lives. Ultimately, Pfizer’s misconduct rests on the paternalistic assumption that Florida consumers could not be trusted with the truth about Pfizer’s products.”