The Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) has recommended the COVID-19 vaccine become a normal part of childhood vaccines, paving the way for a continued and guaranteed source of demand for it, and liability protection for the Big Pharma companies that manufacture it.
President Joe Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” in a recent interview, but his chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci later walked that back, saying those who are not up to date on their vaccinations are “going to get into trouble” if they do not “get boosted.” In addition, he has long advocated for vaccinations to be extended to children. In early September, the Biden administration announced a change in its COVID-19 vaccination plans, saying that it anticipates Americans should expect to annually update with a booster shot, as with the flu vaccine.
While American politicians are pushing the COVID-19 vaccine for American children, other countries are warning against it. In Denmark, the government has actually made it impossible for those under 18 to receive a COVID-19 vaccination without a doctor’s recommendation, since children are at such a low risk of symptoms. The Swedish government no longer recommends the vaccine for those under 17 years old. Since September 1, the British government has limited COVID-19 vaccination to children under 12 to just those at high risk.
Why the difference?
On the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast, Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers explain there are two key motivations guiding this: profits and liability protections.
Pfizer and Moderna are the main vaccine makers in the US. When we last looked, Pfizer expected to make between $15-$30 billion from their vaccine. Moderna, founded 12 years ago, has never made a profit. Yet the company expected sales of the experimental mRNA vaccine of between $18 and $20 billion. Its share price at the time rose 372 percent.
In 2022, Pfizer is projected to “to become [a] $100B behemoth” due to the COVID-19 vaccine, according to analysts. As explained by Fierce Pharma, “That level of revenue would be unheard of in the pharma industry.” It got another boost when the FDA authorized booster shots for all US adults, leading the company to revise upwards its 2022 revenue forecast.
Besides continued profits, there is another, more sinister reason that the Big Pharma companies want the Biden administration’s CDC to recommend their vaccines to children — liability protection.
In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which guaranteed that vaccines covered under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) would be subject to liability protections the act affords. This essentially prevents a person from suing the vaccine producers until they “exhaust the remedies available under the VICP.” But COVID-19 vaccines are protected from liability by the PREP Act, a piece of legislation that broadly protects them only during emergency declarations (like the COVID-19 “public health emergency”). That emergency declaration was set to expire this coming January, which would have ended the current liability protections and opened Big Pharma up to lawsuits by those with adverse reactions to the vaccines. Having the COVID-19 vaccine added to the list covered by the VICP program would offer these large companies ongoing protection from being sued in American courts by those who develop medical problems traceable to the vaccine.
Why is Big Pharma able to get such protection? The short answer is, as we at the Government Accountability Institute like to say, follow the money. Big Pharma spends money. It is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the Capitol. Not only that, but pharmaceutical companies are among the largest advertisers on most of the news networks. As Peter notes, Big Pharma is the fourth biggest advertiser on TV, and during 2020 their digital ad spending rose 532 percent.
So, is it really any wonder that when it proposes that its vaccine be added to the standard bank of inoculations that children are required to have to attend school, they are supported by the politicians and the mainstream media?