A PR firm that represents big pharma companies like Pfizer and Moderna has been revealed to staff certain divisions in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the pandemic, sparking questions regarding potential conflicts of interest.
“I started sending questions to the CDC last week, contacting CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, yesterday. The CDC still refuses to respond,” he said.
Weber Shandwick won a CDC contract potentially worth $50 million in October 2020 to promote influenza vaccines as well as the agency. Based on NCIRD documents, Weber employees would handle communications, marketing, and promotion tours for suggested actions during outbreaks and vaccine recommendations.
Thacker pointed to a Linkedin account of a former Weber employee detailing his duties at the CDC “focuses on boosting vaccination rates for flu, HPV, whooping cough, and COVID-19.”
Conflicts and Profits
Weber Shandwick has worked with Pfizer since at least 2006, and partnered with Moderna in June 2022 after the success of the company’s international rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.Pivoting Stances
In a stunning admission on Oct. 10, a Pfizer executive said that the company did not know whether its COVID-19 vaccine would stop transmission before it entered the market in 2021.“Did we know about stopping immunization before it entered the market? No … we had to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market,” said Pfizer’s Janine Small, president of international developed markets, in response to a question by Member of the European Parliament, Rob Roos.
“Millions of people worldwide felt forced to get vaccinated because of the myth that ‘you do it for others,'” Roos said in Twitter video on the same day. “Now, this turned out to be a cheap lie” and “should be exposed,” he added.
Dr. Martin Kulldorf, Professor of Medicine at Harvard (on leave), had worked with the CDC to develop its vaccine safety evaluation system. “It is concerning that CDC talking points are provided by the same public relations company that works for the vaccine manufacturers,” he said, per Thacker’s newsletter.
“To ensure public trust, CDC must provide accurate, science-based evidence on vaccines,” Kulldorf said. “They have failed to do so.”
The CDC fired Kulldorf following his disagreement with the agency on discontinuing the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine—a competitor of Pfizer and Moderna, said Thacker.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the CDC and Weber Shandwick.