British pharmaceutical watchdog the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority has reprimanded Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla for making “misleading” statements about children’s Covid vaccines, according to reports news.com.au.
According to the media report, in early December 2021, Dr Bourla used an interview with BBC Breakfast to claim that the virus was “thriving” in schools and “there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favour of” giving five-year-olds the vaccine.
“This is disturbing, significantly, the educational system, and there are kids that will have severe symptoms,” he said.
At the time, the country’s vaccine watchdog was still deciding whether the jabs should be approved for children aged five to 11.
It wasn’t until February 2022 that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) approved the vaccine for that age group.
By March 2022, some data were showing the effectiveness of the children’s vaccine plummeted to just 12 per cent within weeks of inoculation.
Dr Bourla said in the BBC interview that the main benefit of immunising children was “the indirect protection of adults”.
“The extent to which we can do that and protect adults by avoiding them being infected by children with the current vaccines is still quite uncertain,” he said.
“So, that’s the balance — we clearly want to protect children as much as possible and we’ve got good evidence now that this vaccine, even at a low dose, produces a really good protective immune response in children and produces many fewer side effects because of the lower dose.
“The question really is that should that be our focus right now. Or should we really be focusing on adults who are the ones that much more commonly get seriously ill.”
Shortly after the interview was published, parent lobby group UsForThem lodged a formal complaint with the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).
The complaint alleged Dr Bourla’s remarks were “disgracefully misleading” and “extremely promotional in nature”, breaching several clauses of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s (ABPI) code of practice, The Telegraph reported
