Did Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla "admit" Comirnaty fails to block transmission of COVID-19 and causes many young people to die suddenly? No, that's not true: Those words are put in his mouth by anti-vaccine activists in this video and they contradict the findings of initial and follow-up safety studies accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, as well as by subsequent monitoring of tens of millions of people vaccinated against COVID-19.
The claims appear in a January 25, 2023, TikTok video (archived here) on the @blue_lemon.soda account. The caption begins "CEO of Pfizer" and continues (according to a translation by Lead Stories staff):
...which created an mRNA vaccine that caused many young people to die suddenly, is asked about the dangers of the Pfizer CoVid vaccine, which made him tens of millions of dollars, but caused sudden death in people who took the vaccine ...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sat Apr 29 18:19:17 2023 UTC)
The TikTok video include a mix of claims made in its caption, including claims made in a video clip of a "Rebel News" team's ambush interview filmed in Davos, Switzerland. In the clip, anti-vaccine activists posing as journalists make false claims in the form of questions and Bourla does not answer, nor agree.
The claims the Rebel News interviewer makes regarding the purported failure of vaccines to block transmission are part of a global anti-vaccine campaign fostered by EU parliament member and Dutch politician Rob Roos. Roos took the fact that transmission-blocking is not part of the pre-release testing protocol for vaccines and turned it into an "admission" that the vaccine doesn't work, as explained in this prior Lead Stories fact check of Roos' claim.
The "sudden deaths" narrative, promoted worldwide by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other debunked anti-vaccine activists, uses fake data and pre-COVID video and has not been borne out by scientific research in peer-reviewed journals by experts in the field of vaccinology.
Some versions of the "sudden deaths" story are illogically based on non-relevant hospital billing data, while others make erroneous claims by misusing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that show the opposite of what Kennedy, Rebel News, Roos and others claim. People are statistically safer taking the vaccine than not taking it.
In an April 23, 2023 email to Lead Stories, the CDC points to statistics that show vaccination can be credited with net economic benefits totaling trillions of dollars. Public Affairs Specialist Lisa George said, "COVID-19 vaccines are the best tool to prevent and reduce complications due to COVID-19." She continued:
Data from just the first year of the vaccine's use suggest approximately 25.32 million cases, 1.38 million hospitalizations, and 213,000 deaths were averted because of vaccination. Additionally, the total health benefits are estimated at $2.95 trillion, including reductions in deaths ($2.45 trillion), hospitalizations ($354.14 billion), and cases ($139.96 billion).
Anti-vaccine groups have not provided independent, credible data in support of their claims.
