Pfizer Secretly Paid Thousands to Groups Lobbying for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Pfizer secretly paid thousands to groups lobbying for vaccine mandates that forced the company’s experimental shot on millions of Americans, according to journalist Lee Fang.

The extensive list of highly influential groups that received funding from Pfizer includes public health organizations, civil rights nonprofits, and consumer, doctor, and medical groups — many of whom never disclosed the funding they received from Pfizer while advocating for COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

For example, the Chicago Urban League (CUL) in early 2021 received $100,000 from Pfizer. Just eight months later, CUL president Karen Freeman-Wilson, on television, dismissed accusations that Chicago’s plan to force employers to require COVID-19 vaccine mandates rules would disproportionately harm the Black community.

The National Consumers League (NCL), a corporate watchdog group, announced in August 2021 that it supported “government and employer mandates requiring [COVID-19] vaccination.” During the same period, it accepted $75,000 from Pfizer dedicated to “vaccine policy efforts.”

A key board member of NCL, Andrea LaRue, was a highly paid contract lobbyist to Pfizer on vaccine policy, which was never disclosed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) worked tirelessly to implement vaccine mandates for the nation’s smallest children. Yet, the AAP in 2021 received multiple grants from Pfizer. The company also gave grants to individual state chapters earmarked for lobbying on vaccine policies.

According to Fang, the Ohio AAP chapter lobbied the Ohio legislature against bills to restrain coercive COVID-19 vaccine policies while receiving an “immunization legislation” advocacy grant from Pfizer.

Houston-based public health nonprofit Immunization Partnerships (IP) lobbied publicly against Texas legislation in 2021 designed to prevent vaccine passports and local vaccine mandates. The Immunization Partnership claimed that the bills “erode the vital role of our state’s public health and medical experts in combating this pandemic.” However, IP did not disclose it was paid $35,000 by Pfizer in 2021 for “legislative advocacy.”

The American Pharmacists Association, American College of Preventive Medicine, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Society for Clinical Pathology, and the American College of Emergency Physicians signed a letter in support of the Biden administration’s mandate to require employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly. All of these organizations received grants from Pfizer to push vaccine mandates.

Working with Culture One World, the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) lobbied in support of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. Yet, IRS filings show the organizations received $30,000 from a vaccine industry lobby group representing Pfizer and Moderna to distribute press releases and media placements calling on “employers of essential workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines.”

President Biden, in September 2021, issued an executive order requiring as many as 100 million Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine — including private sector employees, healthcare workers, and federal contractors — threatening thousands in fines for businesses that do not comply. In his speech, Biden made no exception for the millions of Americans with natural immunity.

Critics of the mandates, like vaccine researcher Geert Vanden Bossche claimed vaccinating during a pandemic would cause evolutionary pressure on the SARS-CoV-2 virus resulting in resistance to vaccines and greater lethality. His claims, like many others, were dismissed and ignored.

The Biden administration later faced a series of rulings from federal courts overturning some of its mandates. The U.S. Supreme Court in January 2022 overturned the OSHA vaccine mandate for workers at businesses with 100 or more employees but left in place the healthcare mandate for workers in medical facilities.

Pfizer, in 2021, made $36.7 billion in sales from its COVID vaccines, making it the second most lucrative medical product in history. Pfizer made slightly more in 2022. The pharmaceutical company has enjoyed complete liability protection from our government for the hundreds of thousands of reported injuries caused by its COVID-19 vaccines, including tens of thousands of deaths.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, an expert in bioethics, claims Pfizer engaged in a “form of market manipulation by pushing mandates using organizations that present themselves as scientifically credible, or acting in the public interest while creating by force a market for the company’s products.”

Jenin Younes, an attorney formerly with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said Pfizer’s drug industry money presents an “inherent conflict of interest” that shaped the discourse around COVID-19 mandates.

“If people or institutions advocated for or implemented mandates while failing to disclose ties to the vaccine companies, that is a serious ethical violation, and potentially even unlawful, and should be thoroughly investigated,” Younes said.