MP Leslyn Lewis Calls for Inquiry After Pfizer Exec Says COVID Vaccine Not Tested on Preventing Transmission

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis rises during question period in Parliament in Ottawa on Sept. 27, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis is calling for a public inquiry after a Pfizer executive conceded that the company didn’t test its COVID-19 vaccine for its ability to stop transmission before it went on the market.

“We need an inquiry. Politicians and health experts promised Canadians that the vax would prevent transmission. Pfizer admits it never tested for that. [Its] executives sat in silence while trusted officials gave incorrect info to the public. That’s just wrong,” Lewis wrote on social media on Oct. 15.

In her tweet, Lewis included a video from Rob Roos, a member of the European Parliament, who asked during a parliamentary session on Oct. 10 whether the Pfizer vaccine was “tested on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market?”

Janine Small, Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, said in response: “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.”

Roos, of the Netherlands, said in his video posted on Twitter on Oct. 11 that Small’s admission “removes the entire legal basis for the COVID passport.”

“If you don’t get vaccinated, you’re anti-social, this is what the Dutch prime minister and health minister told us. You don’t get vaccinated just for yourself, but also for others. You do it for all of society. That’s what they said,” he said.

“Today, this turned out to be complete nonsense.”

Roos said the vaccine passport, a measure widely implemented by governments around the world, led to “massive institutional discrimination,” as those who chose not to be vaccinated “lost access to essential parts of society.”

“I find this to be shocking, even criminal,” he said.

On Jan. 13, 2021, Pfizer said in a social media post that the “ability to vaccinate at speed to gain herd immunity and stop transmission is our highest priority. ... Our focus is on supporting points of vaccination, as that’s key to increasing the volume of people getting vaccinated every day.”

In another tweet on March 11, 2021, the company referenced the Israel Ministry of Health’s national vaccination program that gave emergency authorization for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the country on Dec. 6, 2020.

“The Israel data demonstrate that the vaccine may be able to prevent continued transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which is vital to helping to bring an end to the pandemic,” the tweet said.

A video leaked in September suggests Israeli health officials had covered up serious long-term side effects associated with Pfizer’s vaccine. The video shows that researchers had warned the Israel Ministry of Health about the problem in June. However, health officials released a report in August saying that serious side effects were “rare” and short-term, reported The Defender.

Jack Phillips and Suzanne Burdick contributed to this report