The regulatory body for the British industry has upheld a complaint against the CEO of Pfizer, Dr Albert Bourla, for statements he made in a BBC interview about vaccinating children against Covid-19, which were described by the complainant as “disgracefully misleading”.
In the interview with the national broadcaster, the Pfizer chief noted that in the US the jab had been approved for children aged 5 to 11 and said that immunising that age group in Europe would be a “very good idea”, adding that “Covid in schools is thriving”.
“This is disturbing, significantly, the educational system, and there are kids that will have severe symptoms,” he added. “So there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favour of doing it.”
Dr Bourla was speaking on BBC in December 2021, before the Covid-19 vaccine had been approved for children in Britain.
The Telegraph reports that ” a complaint was submitted to the pharmaceutical watchdog – the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) – by UsForThem, a parent campaign group which was set up to promote the plight of children during the pandemic”.
The complaint alleged that Dr Bourla’s remarks were in breach of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s (ABPI) code of practice.
His statements were ‘disgracefully misleading’ and were used to promote Pfizer’s products, the complaint claimed.
”Here, Dr Bourla recommends vaccinating healthy British children under the age of 11 against Covid-19. He is making a claim for the clinical efficacy and safety of his product, its risk/benefit balance, even though the vaccine has not yet been included in the emergency use temporary approval for use in children this young in the UK,” the complaint submitted.
“There is simply no evidence that healthy schoolchildren in the UK are at significant risk from the SARS COV-2 virus and to imply that they are is disgracefully misleading,” the UsForThem group’s complaint said.
They also took issue with ‘promotion’ of products which they said was in breach of the guidelines.
“In addition to promotion of the Pfizer vaccine there are also promotional statements about another Pfizer product in development. “Pfizer has also developed an antiviral pill Paxlovid which in trials cut hospital admissions and deaths by nearly 90%,” the complaint said.
The Telegraph noted that three months previously, “the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), had advised against a mass roll-out for children aged 12-15, saying the “margin of benefit” was “considered too small” and citing the low risk to healthy children from the virus.”
However, in December 2021, almost a fortnight after the BBC interview, the British cabinet authorised a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab for school children, but it was not until February 2022 that the JCVI ruled that children aged 5-11 could be offered the vaccine, and parents had a right to refuse the offer.
The PMCPA’s code of practice panel found that Pfizer had breached the code by misleading the public, making unsubstantiated claims, and by failing to present information in a factual and balanced way.
While Pfizer appealed against the findings, an appeal board upheld the decision that the code was breached in relation to misleading the public, making unsubstantiated claims and the lack of balance were upheld.
But the watchdog’s panel did overturn findings that Pfizer had brought discredit to the industry, had encouraged irrational use of a medicine and had failed to maintain high standards.
A spokesman for Pfizer told the Telegraph that they are “committed to the highest levels of integrity in any interaction with the public”.