Well, this might set a new record for lack of awareness and purposeful disregard for reality.
Thankfully, we're now several years past theCOVID-19 pandemic. After years of senseless policies, incalculable damage from lockdowns, school closures, business shutdowns, masking, and runaway money printing, most places in society have returned to normalcy. Though at the start of 2022, that seemed virtually impossible.
States and countries had mask mandates, vaccine passports were still in effect, with no end in sight. Prominent politicians spoke openly about bringing back those mandates and passports whenever they felt like it. Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams threatened to bring back mandates whenever he felt it necessary. "I’m a pilot," he said. "I’m the pilot of the city. And as the pilot, I have to make the decisions based on the weather that is in front of me... if we have to pivot and shift and come back to mandates, I’m going to have the courage to do that."
What ended the insanity of the pandemic period wasn't any type of government policy, pharmaceutical intervention, or specific mandate. It was the fact that by the spring of 2022, virtually everyone on earth got COVID. Some tested positive for a second, or even third time. And it blew apart the case for permanent policies. But if you askPfizer CEO Albert Bourla, what ended the pandemic was his company, of course.
Sep 20, 2023; Washington, DC, United States; Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, speaks during a press conference promoting COVID-19 booster shots at a CVS in Washington D.C. Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Mandatory Credit: Josh Morgan-USA TODAY
Bourla, in an interview withFortune,made one of the most ridiculous arguments we've seen about the pandemic period, while completely ignoring the inaccuracy of his own previous statements. In the interview, Bourla explains howPfizerused their COVID profits, which were "significant," to invest in cancer treatment research. Then transitioned to his absurd, self-aggrandizing claim.
"We used all the profits that we were able to generate from the COVID period, which were significant, to reinvest them," Bourla explained. "And the area that we chose was cancer. This is where the bulk of our investments were. For several reasons, we are already good at cancer, and the second was that we had a fantastic opportunity…to double down on it. But also because cancer is so personal, and cancer affects so much of the world and affects so much of our colleagues. And I knew that wonderful people who saved from the world from COVID, will now save the world from cancer."
In a sense, Pfizer's mRNA vaccine did "save the world," in that it gave incompetent politicians and experts license to act as though the release ofCOVID vaccinesallowed them to end their policies. In reality though, Pfizer's vaccine, while it helped some, spectacularly underdelivered on Bourla's own claims.
For example, in 2021, he said it was "100% effective" against infection, saying "Excited to share that updated analysis from our Phase 3 study with BioNTech also showed that our COVID-19 vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 cases in South Africa. 100%!"
He also said that it was "100% effective" against "severe disease," proudly announcing, "The vaccine was 100% effective in preventing severe disease as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
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