Pfizer's Immoral History
The first part of a series on: Reasons Not to Trust Big Pharma
Editors Note: Guest Piece by Elizabeth Morelli - Twitter @SalijPrije
Author of “War in the Mind”
It surely is a turn of events that we now find the traditional right-wing sector of the American populace expressing doubt and skepticism regarding Big Pharma, specifically their role and aggressive marketing in the Great Vaccination Campaign of 2021.
Since the traditional left-wing sector of the media is neglecting to cover some historical events that have led us to this present-day skepticism and distrust, I thought it important to make a record, and will focus this article on the many abuses of Pfizer Inc., the only company whose vaccine is currently FDA-approved.
Pfizer and the Great Vaccination Campaign of 2021
It is a well-known trope among practitioners of natural medicine that Western medicine does not treat causes, but symptoms. The problem with this model is that the patient is prescribed a laundry list of pharmaceuticals which treat the various symptoms of a disease, but also causes others, and also does nothing about the underlying reason behind the disease. Western medicine has a tendency to create a dependency that causes the patient to remain a customer, rather than be truly cured of their malady.
Pfizer has been guilty of all of the worst and most deceptive practices accused of pharmaceutical companies. Despite their dubious history, their vaccine is still somehow blindly trusted today, even though the company bears no liability, and has even demanded military assets be held as collateral in the case of damages sued against them.1
Pfizer’s Extortionate Demands of Latin-American Countries
Multiple Latin American countries have accused Pfizer of impropriety during their contractual negotiations over the vaccine. They reported that Pfizer demanded military bases be held as collateral in exchange for the vaccines but has also demanded “liability protection not only against civil claims from citizens who suffer serious adverse events after being vaccinated, but also for cases brought due to Pfizer’s own negligence, fraud or malice.”2
As one insightful Twitter user wrote in response to this news about Pfizer:As one insightful Twitter user wrote in response to this news about Pfizer:
It is true: this is nothing new for Pfizer. In fact, they have a history of bullying and manipulation, and of being charged criminal fines by governments. Pfizer admitted to charges of bribery in eight countries back in 2012, attempting to bribe doctors into prescribing Pfizer products.3 And this is not particular to Pfizer either, nor even to pharmaceutical corporations, though some major opioid lawsuits have just been settled, in which it was concluded that certain pharmaceutical companies “persuaded the American medical establishment that strong opioids should be much more widely prescribed—and that physicians’ longstanding fears about the addictive nature of such drugs were overblown.”4 No, unfortunately this is characteristic of modern American corporate cronyism: what many today are deceived into believing is free-market capitalism.
Pfizer’s Complicated History
The following are various other facts regarding Pfizer’s controversial history. May you excuse the author for its dryness, but they have a long history of morally compromised behaviors:
2012: Pfizer paid $450 million to settle a case of not giving a certain professor, Dr. Simmons, credit or compensation for discovering an enzyme later used by Pfizer in their development of a superior aspirin.5
2010: Pfizer was accused of an aggressive and illegal pharmaceutical marketing campaign by Blue Cross, including a “massages-for-prescriptions push”, wherein they paid for massages, golf games, and plane tickets to Caribbean resorts for 5,000 doctors in order to get them to prescribe drugs for off-label uses.6
2010: Pfizer paid $1.4 million after firing a whistleblower who raised safety concerns after being paralyzed by a genetically engineered virus she was exposed to at a Pfizer laboratory.7
2009: Pfizer spent over $16.3 million in this year alone to attempt to lobby members of Congress. It is the 6th largest lobbyist in the U.S.; the 4th is Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, who also represents Pfizer’s interests. The health sector is the single largest sector lobbying Congress, and has spent $1.7 billion since 2006 lobbying Congress and other federal agencies.
2009: Pfizer pays $2.3 billion for illegal marketing of pharmaceutical products, paying the “largest health care fraud settlement in its history.”
1996: Most horrifyingly, Pfizer administered an experimental drug during a clinical trial on 200 children in Nigeria, but never told the parents that their children were the subjects of an experiment. Pfizer conducted this experiment in Nigeria, because they could not find U.S. parents willing to subject their children to such an experiment. Pfizer did not gain the consent of the Nigerian patients or their families through signed consent forms, which is standard procedure in the West. Out of the 200 children, more than 11 died, and many more developed serious disabling and paralyzing injuries. These results are not conclusively tied to Pfizer’s experiments, as these are the historical outcomes for meningitis in Nigeria. However, the most conclusively corrupt aspect is that Pfizer did not obtain consent or inform the patients that they were the subjects of an experiment, not the recipients of an approved drug.8
1996: As a response to a lawsuit filed by Nigerian families over the experimental trial, Pfizer hired investigators to find dirt on the Nigerian attorney general in an attempt to blackmail him.9
1994: Pfizer settled charges after found lying to the U.S. Department of Justice in order to get defective heart valves they developed approved.10
1990: Wikileaks released documents showing that Pfizer tried to get rid of New Zealand health minister Helen Clark, because she implemented “restrictive drug buying rules.” In addition, Pfizer lobbied in the U.S. against New Zealand’s securing a Free Trade Agreement because of their drug buying policies.11
With such a nasty and immoral history, why are those hesitant of trusting such a company with their bodies demonized by those famed for their empathy, namely the left-wing sector of the American population? It is a puzzling paradox.
1 “Fact Check: Are Pharmaceutical Companies Immune from COVID-19 Vaccine Lawsuits?” Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-are-pharmaceutical-companies-immune-covid-19-vaccine-lawsuits-1562793.
2 “Pfizer accused of ‘bullying’ Latin American countries during vaccine negotiations.” Pharmaceutical Technology. https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/company-news/pfizer-latin-american-vaccine/.
3 “Pfizer Admits Bribery in Eight Countries.” Corp Watch: Holding Corporations Accountable. https://www.corpwatch.org/article/pfizer-admits-bribery-eight-countries.
4 “The Sackler Family’s Plan to Keep its Billions.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-sackler-familys-plan-to-keep-its-billions.
5 “Pfizer Settles B.Y.U. Lawsuit Over Development of Celebrex.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/health/pfizer-settles-byu-lawsuit-over-development-of-celebrex.html.
6 “Blue Cross Names and Shames Pfizer Execs Linked to Massages-for-Prescriptions Push.” CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-cross-names-and-shames-pfizer-execs-linked-to-massages-for-prescriptions-push/.
7 “A Pfizer Whistle-Blower Is Awarded $1.4 Million.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03pfizer.html.
8 “WikiLeaks Cables: Pfizer Targeted Nigerian Attorney General to Undermine Suit over Fatal Drug Tests.” Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/17/wikileaks_cables_pfizer_targeted_nigerian_attorney.
9 “WikiLeaks Cables.” See Note 8 for URL.
10 “Pfizer Unit to Settle Charges of Lying About Heart Valve.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/02/business/pfizer-unit-to-settle-charges-of-lying-about-heart-valve.html.
11 “WikiLeaks: Drug firms tried to ditch Clark.” New Zealand Herald. https://www.corpwatch.org/article/pfizer-admits-bribery-eight-countries.
 | A guest post by
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As you say in the beginning of your excellent article, what a turn of events. The left has become the mouthpiece for the elite billionaires. Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Chris Hedges and many others have not only failed miserably in addressing the ongoing Big Pharma crimes , but have instead thrown their weight behind medical Fascism. If there is any thing good to come out of this hysteria it is that so many have shown their true colours.