Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday launched an investigation into whether or not Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson misrepresented the efficacy and safety of their coronavirus vaccines to the public.
Paxton’s investigation will also look into if those pharmaceutical companies misrepresented the likelihood of becoming infected after receiving a vaccine and if they conducted gain-of-function research and misled the public about doing so.
The investigation will also review the companies’ “controversial practice of reporting the metric of ‘relative risk reduction’ instead of ‘absolute risk reduction’ when publicly discussing the efficacy of their vaccines,” according to Paxton’s office.
Paxton’s office on Monday served the three coronavirus vaccine manufacturers with civil investigative demands, requesting various internal documents.
Federal law currently provides vaccine manufacturers legal immunity from “claims of loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration or use of” coronavirus tests, drugs, and vaccines. However, CBS Austin noted that “if Paxton’s probe uncovers fraudulent activity, it could have implications on this immunity and open the pharmaceutical manufacturers up to class-action lawsuits from those alleging they were injured by the jab.”
Some of the requested documents in each Civil Investigative Demand included, but were not limited to, the following:
Provide all Documents Concerning all meetings, conversations, or other Communications between You and HCP’s in Texas during which Your Covid-19 Vaccine and/or the use of Vaccines to prevent or minimize the dangers of Covid-I 9 was discussed, Including any Call Notes, or other notes, reports, analysis, or Documents Concerning such visits or Communications.
…
Provide all Documents Concerning all meetings, conversations, or other Communications between You and HCP’s in Texas during which Your Covid-19 Vaccine and/or the use of Vaccines to prevent or minimize the dangers of Covid-19 was discussed, Including any Call Notes, or other notes, reports, analysis, or Documents Concerning such visits or Communications.
…
Produce Documents sufficient to Identify all lawsuits or private causes of action filed against You regarding Marketing or representations made by You about the safety and effectiveness of Your Covid-19 Vaccine.
…
Produce all Communications and Documents Related To whistleblower reports or concerns regarding Your Covid-19 Vaccine trials or the transmissibility, or likelihood of transmitting Covid- 19, after taking Your Covid- 19 Vaccine.
Of note, Paxton’s office also demanded each company provide communications “with the CDC Related To the Vaccine definition change from ‘a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease’ to ‘a preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases’ on or around September 2021.”
Paxton recognized each company had a “vested interest” in the vaccines due to the “record-breaking financial success.”
“In recent years, certain pharmaceutical companies have had record-breaking financial success, driven in part by sales made from products related to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Paxton’s office said. “This vested interest in the success of these Covid-19 products, combined with reports about the alarming side effects of vaccines, demands aggressive investigation. “
“The development of the Covid-19 vaccine, and the representations made by and knowledge of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, are of profound interest to the public’s health and welfare,” Paxton said in a statement. “This investigation aims to discover the truth.”
Paxton added:
This pandemic was a deeply challenging time for Americans. If any company illegally took advantage of consumers during this period or compromised people’s safety to increase their profits, they will be held responsible. If public health policy was developed on the basis of flawed or misleading research, the public must know. The catastrophic effects of the pandemic and subsequent interventions forced on our country and citizens deserve intense scrutiny, and we are pursuing any hint of wrongdoing to the fullest.
Paxton ordered the companies to produce the requested documents by May 31.
A Pfizer spokesperson defended the company’s practices, telling the Texas Tribune, “Regulatory agencies across the world have authorized the use of our COVID-19 vaccine.”
“These authorizations are based on robust and independent evaluation of the scientific data on quality, safety and efficacy, including our landmark phase 3 clinical trial,” the spokesperson added. “Data from real-world studies complement the clinical trial data and provide additional evidence that the vaccine provides effective protection against severe disease.”
When an investigation is launched on a proper foundation, the law entitles investigators to very broad and penetrating demands for documents, testimony, and answers. With the growing number of questions that have arisen over the past two years’ revelations on the limited benefits and unknown long-term side effects of the vaccines — and even whether or not the vaccines are needed as desperately as the Biden administration and others told Americans it was — it could be fascinating to see what precisely those formulating the marketing of the vaccines knew about those issues, and when they knew it.
Breitbart News’ senior legal editor Ken Klukowski contributed to this report.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
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