Fact Checkers: It’s OK Pfizer Never Studied If COVID Vax Stops Transmission Because They Never Said They Did

There has been a considerable amount of understandable buzz and unrest making the rounds since a Pfizer executive was forced to admit to a European Union conference that they never tested their COVID vaccine to see if it would actually prevent infections or halt the transmission of the virus prior to it being rushed onto the market and mandated almost universally. This has left many health officials and elected officials with pie on their faces and vocal sectors of the public demanding answers. Stepping into the breach to quell the uproar this weekend is Reuters, publishing yet another one of their infamous “fact checks” to clear the matter up.

So what did they find? Did they uncover proof that Pfizer and Moderna actually had done those tests but the dog ate their homework? Nope. Nothing of the sort. Instead, they went the opposite route, saying that we were all mistaken about the vaccines and nobody ever claimed that they would prevent infections or transmission. All of you in the unwashed masses were simply confused, as usual.

Social media users are circulating video clips of testimony by a Pfizer executive, who is said to “admit” that the company and its partner BioNTech did not test whether their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine reduced virus transmission prior to rolling it out – which is something the companies were not required to do for initial regulatory approval, nor did they claim to have done.

To get emergency approval, companies needed to show that the vaccines were safe and prevented vaccinated people from getting ill. They did not have to show that the vaccine would also prevent people from spreading the virus to others. Once the vaccines were on the market, independent researchers in multiple countries studied people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and did show that vaccination reduced transmission of variants circulating at the time…

The misleading posts imply that national restrictions such as vaccine passports were based on a promise of vaccines blocking virus spread that neither the companies nor EU regulators made before the vaccines were marketed.

Well, I’m certainly glad that’s all been cleared up, aren’t you? Stop blaming Pfizer and Moderna for taking billions upon billions of dollars to rush out those vaccines, along with a guarantee from the United States government that they could never be sued for anything that happened in the aftermath. Never mind for the moment that the medical definition of “vaccine” is, ‘a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases.’ (Emphasis added)

And what does “immunity” mean? ‘The ability of an organism to resist a particular infection or toxin.” But why should we sit around and quibble over facts, right?

As with so many things in the fully politicized world of what passes for science these days, the defense being offered by Reuters completely missed the point. I haven’t seen any serious critics holding the feet of Pfizer and Moderna to the fire over this. They are

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