Florida Grand Jury Finds Pharmaceutical Giants Like Pfizer Downplayed Vaccine Side Effects

A Florida grand jury recently concluded its investigation into the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, noting questionable behavior, like close ties between pharmaceutical companies and regulators and the downplaying of adverse side effects.

The final report from the Twenty-Second Statewide Grand Jury of Florida acknowledge that Covid-19 vaccines were a "triumph of science, technology and public health" but that these same vaccines were "heedlessly licensed, excessively recommended, and even mandated to broad swathes of people that did not need them, placing their health – and sometimes their lives – at unnecessary risk."

The grand jury highlighted what they described as a systemic failure: “Sponsors and federal regulators collaborated to push out booster after booster based on shallow, inaccurate safety and efficacy data, sidelining their own ombudsmen to get doses of these vaccines into the arms of every American.” Worse, the report accuses these entities of abusing scientific systems to delay public disclosure of adverse events. “Sponsors abused the scientific journal system and regulatory reporting requirements, delaying public disclosure of serious adverse events from their clinical trials for years,” it states.

The grand jury’s probe primarily targeted Pfizer and Moderna, the two pharmaceutical giants behind the widely distributed mRNA vaccines. Over the course of 18 months, they reviewed mountains of evidence, subpoenaed documents, and took testimony from over 40 experts. Yet, significant hurdles emerged when seeking testimony from federal officials, who, the report noted, "refused to testify" and could not be compelled by state-level subpoenas.

In addition to all of these findings, the documents state, "Experienced and respected scientists saw their careers turned upside down for dissenting from 'the science,' while experts with opinions matching those of regulators filled the gaps with contrived research and ill-conceived study designs." 

One major issue flagged by the report involves postmarketing studies and safety signals. "Federal regulators dragged their feet in publicly confirming important safety signals, and then sanctioned long delays in mandatory postmarketing studies involving those very same signals," it asserts.  

The report also sheds light on vaccine-related myocarditis and pericarditis, conditions that have emerged as “rare” but serious adverse effects. Regulatory agencies’ apparent reluctance to address these issues promptly raises critical questions about their role as public health gatekeepers.

The accelerated development of vaccines through Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is also scrutinized. While acknowledging the urgency of the pandemic, the report makes clear that compromises were made. It notes, “The FDA was also moving with abnormal speed,” adding that this haste resulted in sponsors receiving "prompt turnaround regarding their development milestones and rapid responses from agency officials."

Such acceleration wasn’t inherently problematic, but the grand jury suggests that this rush left significant gaps in transparency and accountability. It argues that public health messaging often crossed into propaganda territory, with citizens being "propagandized into believing things about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 vaccines that simply were not true."

Now, the Grand Jury is seeking greater transparency in clinical trials, improved pharmacovigilance systems, and reforms to the legal and regulatory frameworks that shield pharmaceutical companies from liability. “Perhaps our findings and recommendations will provide a blueprint for a larger reckoning regarding the balance of power between federal regulators, public health officials, pharmaceutical sponsors and the citizens of the United States,” the report concludes.

Still, implementing these recommendations would require overcoming significant institutional inertia—and public exhaustion. The grand jury acknowledges the uphill battle: “Most Floridians—and most Americans, for that matter—have moved on with their lives and would probably prefer to keep the events of those years in the rearview mirror.”

Despite these findings, the jury determined there wasn’t “enough evidence” to pursue criminal charges. Will those who were negatively affected by the vaccine ever receive justice?

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