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Austin: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Pfizer of misrepresenting the effectiveness of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in a lawsuit filed in state court.
The pharmaceutical giant used misleading statistics to promote its vaccine and sought to “intimidate and silence” those who questioned the product’s efficacy, the lawsuit, filed on Thursday Austin-time, alleges.
Paxton is seeking more than $US10 million ($15 million) in civil fines and a court order barring Pfizer from speaking publicly about the efficacy of its vaccine.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.Credit: AP
“We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies,” Paxton said in a statement.
The lawsuit follows a probe launched by Paxton’s office in May into three major drug companies related to claims they made about the effectiveness of the vaccine. Paxton has been a vocal opponent of COVID-19 safety mandates since the onset of the pandemic.
In a complaint filed in a Lubbock County state court, Paxton said it was misleading for Pfizer to claim its vaccine was 95 per cent effective because it offered a “relative risk reduction” for people to who took it.
Paxton said the claim was based on only two months of clinical trial data, and that the pandemic got worse even after people started taking Pfizer’s vaccine.
“Pfizer intentionally misrepresented the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine and censored persons who threatened to disseminate the truth in order to facilitate fast adoption of the product and expand its commercial opportunity,” the complaint said.
Paxton’s statement included the claim: “COVID-19 cases increased after widespread vaccine administration, and some areas saw a greater percentage of deaths from COVID-19 among the vaccinated population than the unvaccinated.”
“When the failure of its product became apparent, Pfizer then pivoted to silencing truth-tellers.”
Bloomberg, Reuters with Chris Zappone
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