Washington, DC, Nov. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On November 2, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an investigation finding poor research practices at Ventavia, a contract research company that conducted COVID-19 vaccine trials for Pfizer.
According to the BMJ, “speed may have come at the cost of data integrity and patient safety.” A former Ventavia employee told the BMJ that the company had “falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer’s pivotal phase III trial. Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding.”
The employee, Brook Jackson, repeatedly notified Ventavia of her concerns according to the BMJ. She then emailed a complaint to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and was fired from her job the next day. The BMJ also stated that Jackson provided “dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails” to the publication.
Jackson filed her complaint with the FDA in September of 2020 but the agency never investigated her documented concerns.
CHD is now calling upon Congress to investigate the FDA’s failure to look into these serious claims of shoddy testing of the Pfizer vaccine. The agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) granted Emergency Use Authorization to Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for children ages five through eleven on October 26, 2021, nearly a year after these safety concerns were known by the FDA. “VRBPAC committee members have extensive ties with the same drug companies that manufacture the vaccines they vote upon,” said CHD president and general counsel Mary Holland. “It’s obvious from their voting records that their allegiance is to Pharma and not to the health of our nation’s children.”
The organization also maintains that the threats posed by these vaccines to children’s health are significant considering that the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) has received 856,919 reports of injuries following COVID vaccination including 18,078 deaths from mid-December, 2020 through October 29, 2021.
“Congress needs to prioritize an investigation of the FDA’s mishandling of the red flags raised by the former Ventavia employee as well as the conflicts of interest at play on the VRBPAC committee,” said Holland. “Tens of millions of children will get this vaccine and many will be subject to mandates in order to attend school. The citizens of this country need to know how this failure was allowed to occur and what steps are now being taken to correct the oversight.”
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Children's Health Defense is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Its mission is to end childhood health epidemics by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable, and establish safeguards to prevent future harm. For more information, visit ChildrensHealthDefense.org.
CONTACT: Rita Shreffler Children's Health Defense 202-599-1461 rita.shreffler@childrenshealthdefense.org
