The COVID-19 virus, which entered our lives in 2020, took the whole world under its influence in a short time and led to the death of millions of people. Many countries have also turned to restrictions due to the pandemic, allowing people to stay at home for quite a long time. The effects of the highly contagious disease have been reduced by vaccines developed by scientists.
Vaccines have divided people throughout the pandemic. Some of them oppose the vaccines developed for certain reasons and suggested that it should not be done. However, the data showed that the effects of the disease were significantly reduced thanks to the vaccine. Now, a statement made by the US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the developer of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine, which is the most widely used vaccine worldwide, has been on the agenda of social media.
Pfizer executive said it wasn’t known before it hit the market whether the vaccine could prevent its infectivity
Watch as Pfizer executive Janine Small admits to EU parliament that Pfizer did not test the vaccine for preventing transmission of Covid prior to it being made available to the public.
Small says, “We had to really move at the speed of science..we had to do everything at risk.” pic.twitter.com/FvTn01zv3J
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) October 11, 2022
Janine Small, one of the executives of Pfizer, attended the hearings held by the European Parliament, replacing the company CEO Albert Bourla. Here, EU officials posed questions to many participating pharmaceutical companies. One of them was to the Pfizer executive.
Rob Roos, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, asked Small, “Has the Pfizer COVID vaccine been tested before its release to see if the virus prevents transmission?” posed the question. Small answered this question as follows: “Did we know if it stopped contagion before it hit the market? No. We had to go at the speed of science to really understand what was going on in the market.”
Saying that they have to take risks, Small, CEO Dr. If Bourla had been there, “If not us, then who?” he would answer. Small also understood the importance of what is going on in the world; Therefore, he said that Pfizer spent $2 billion to take risks and help the pandemic and carry out the necessary research and production.
These statements of Small became the agenda in a short time. Asking the question, Roos described the statement as ‘scandal’ and stated that they were forced to be vaccinated with the slogans ‘Get vaccinated for others’. Many anti-vaccine people reacted similarly to this, trying to make the statements look like they had never been tested.
Some posts made by anti-vaccine people on social media
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/1579759795225198593
“The slogan ‘Get vaccinated for others’ has always been a lie. The sole purpose of the COVID passport was to force people to get vaccinated.”
Does the vaccine prevent contagion?
So, is it necessary to react so much to vaccines because of these statements? Experts already said in their previous statements that vaccines do not completely prevent contagiousness, and that the purpose of vaccines is to reduce severe disease. According to scientists, the priority of vaccine manufacturers is to reduce the symptoms of the disease and reduce deaths rather than preventing infections. In the published data, it is seen that vaccines create higher immunity in people who are vaccinated and how vaccines change the course of the pandemic. Janine Small also states that in the studies published in the continuation of her statements, it was seen that the vaccine saved the lives of 4 million people in the first year.
In addition, there are studies and data showing that COVID vaccines reduce contagion. A study conducted in Israel in partnership with Pfizer in 2021 revealed that the Pfizer vaccine can also significantly reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Another research is that vaccinated people can also transmit the virus; however, it was revealed that this was lower than the others.
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