Opinion
Threat of a Covid vaccine?
The media is full of cheers on the reported finding of a COVID-19 vaccine.
When the story broke out on Tuesday night, the BBC news presenter Mathew Amroliwala, was so excited about having to tell the world about this, with only a short line about it having to be kept in minus 80 degree temperature. This is said to be 90% effective.
Is this the finding of the great preventive against COVID 19? There is certainly much more thinking to be done. A responder on France 24 was very clear in telling that the Pfizer vaccine had not been studied by peers and the various sectors of science and research, to justify its claim for 90% effectiveness.
On another TV channel, a scientist from South Africa, who is engaged in research on vaccine production, was very clear that this would be of no use to Africa and most of Asia. It was best described as a vaccine that could not be brought to the people, but the people had to go to it.
Cocid-19 is spreading hugely the world over, The US has the highest infections and the highest numbers dead from it for any country. Let’s not forget that India stands second in infections, with a low death rate, but the Deepavali and other celebrations could change this picture.
The whole world is certainly in the search for an effective vaccine. Russia claims its own Sputnik vaccine, but it has not been able to control the huge spread of Covid in the current wave. China has claims to a vaccine, which is being tested in some other countries, but the world of Western Science has not given any approval to it.
So why is this huge media spotlight for this Pfizer vaccine? Why do not the key sections of the Western media think of this as the answer to Covid -19, although President Trump himself has not claimed it to be his promised solution to the Covid pandemic? Is he still thinking of swallowing some insecticides to cure Covid? Will some US pharmaceutical company produce a suitable insecticide for this, before president-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20, next year.
It looks like the name Pfizer is the cause for this huge celebration by the western media. Pfizer has produced many drugs that have been of benefit to humans. These include blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), an oral antifungal medication; Zithromax (azithromycin), an antibiotic; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction; and much more.
Pfizer has joined with a German pharmaceutical company in producing this new media hailed anti-COVID vaccine. It is useful to look at the real record of Pfizer, and its means of controlling the media and even medical profession, when judging the sudden hurrah for its COVID vaccine, which must be stored and delivered under 70 to 0 degrees Centigrade!
This company has paid many fines to authorities in the US and other countries too, for huge fraud in the marketing of its drugs. The US Department of Justice has brought many charges against it for criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products. It paid US$ 2.3 million, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the US Department of Justice.
It and its subsidiaries have pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the US Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDA) for misbranding Bextra, as an anti-inflammatory drug, later ouled from the market in 2005. Pfizer promoted the sale of Bextra for several uses and dosages that the FDA specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns.
In addition, Pfizer has agreed to pay US$ 1 billion to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs – Bextra; Geodon – an antipsychotic drug; Zyvox – n an antibiotic; and Lyrica – an anti-epiletic drug. It also caused false claims to be submitted to government healthcare programs, for uses that were not medically accepted.
If that is part of the Pfizer record in the US, let’s go elsewhere. It had to pay compensation to Nigerian families affected by a controversial drug trial in 1996. It paid US$ 175,000 each to four families, after 11 children died and dozens were left disabled, after Pfizer gave them the experimental ant-meningitis drug – Trovan. This is well reported by BBC.
From Africa to Europe, for three years Pfizer Italy provided free cell phones, photocopiers, printers and televisions to doctors, arranged for vacations (such as ‘weekend in Gallipoli”, weekend with companion’ and ‘weekend in Rome”) in return for promises by doctors to recommend Pfizer products.
The New York headquarters of Pfizer has agreed to pay a total of US$ 60.2 million in penalties to settle documented charges of bribery. The Securities and Exchange Commision says that Prozer Italy employees went out of their way to “falsely” book the expenses under ‘misleading” labels like “Professional Training” and “Advertising in Scientific Journals”.
This penalty id roughly half a percent of the company’s annual profit that exceeded $10 billion a year on global sales of $67.4 billion in 2011.
For the interesting record, Italy was not the only country where Pfizer has been accused of bribing doctors and local officials. “Prizer took shortcuts to boost business in several Eurasian countries, bribing government officials in Bulgaria, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Russia to the tune of millions of dollars’, says the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the US Department of Justice, Criminal Division.
We in Sri Lanka are not wholly ignorant of how pharmaceutical companies use crooked and unlawful means to influence those in our medical profession, the organizations and institutions engaged in public health, as well as the political forces that take important decisions on the management of health services, and the availability of drugs, too.
We are just in the midst of a huge political and administrative debate on the matter, particularly over the tracing of COVID-19.
It is time to keep an open eye, locally and internationally, over Pfizer and any other COVID-19 vaccine or other treatment and handling of the pandemic. A vaccine that can be stored and delivered in our own temperatures – and not minus 80 C degreees – is also what we should be watchful of, whatever the global media says about it.