Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, filed a lawsuit Thursday against Pfizer Inc., arguing that the pharmaceutival corporation misrepresented the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine and “conspired to censor” critics.
The lawsuit alleges Pfizer “deceived the public” by claiming its vaccine was 95% effective, as well as through suggestions it made about the vaccine’s duration of protection, protection against transmission, and protectiveness against variants.
Pfizer then “coerced social media platforms to silence prominent truth-tellers,” including former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Brett Giroir and journalist Alex Berenson, engaging in a “censorship campaign” to suppress content that would negatively impact sales, according to the lawsuit.
“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,” Paxton’s complaint alleges, adding:
In light of the multibillion dollar bet that Pfizer made on the vaccine and its need to quickly establish the product as the marketing leader, Pfizer was heavily incentivized to, and in fact did, make misrepresentations intended to confuse and mislead the public in order to achieve widespread adoption of its vaccine.
The complaint filed by Texas also states that government reports show that by 2021, in some places “a greater percentage of the vaccinated were dying from COVID-19 than the unvaccinated.”
“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 formal statement. “The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines.”
“Whereas the Biden administration weaponized the pandemic to force illegal public health decrees on the public and enrich pharmaceutical companies, I will use every tool I have to protect our citizens who were misled and harmed by Pfizer’s actions,” the Texas attorney general said.
Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article was published first by the Daily Caller News Foundation
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