“The COVID-19 vaccines are the miracle that wasn’t,” Paxton states in the opening line of the 54-page legal filing. Texas prosecutors say the company violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), informing the court that toward the end of 2020 as Pfizer’s vaccine rollout began, the company publicly, and falsely, stated that the vaccine was 95 percent effective. Because of these bold assertions, “Americans were given the impression that Pfizer’s vaccine would end the coronavirus pandemic and lift the omnipresent veil of fear and uncertainty from an anxious public,” the lawsuit states. Paxton’s office says that rather than improve, the pandemic worsened after Pfizer’s vaccine launch, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of the country received a COVID-19 vaccine, with most taking Pfizer’s. “How did Pfizer’s vaccine achieve such widespread adoption, yet fall short of the stated goal of ending the pandemic?” prosecutors ask. “In a nutshell, Pfizer deceived the public.” According to the suit, Pfizer based its claims on just two months of clinical trial data. The results of those trials indicated that status of vaccination had a negligible impact on whether a participant contracted COVID-19. Despite the company’s claim of 95 percent efficacy, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) preferred efficacy metric showed that the vaccine was only .08 percent effective, prosecutors say. “We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies,” Paxton said in a statement regarding the legal action. “The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines. Whereas the Biden Administration weaponized the pandemic to force illegal public health decrees on the public and enrich pharmaceutical companies, I will use every tool I have to protect our citizens who were misled and harmed by Pfizer’s actions.” The court filing also says that Pfizer engaged in a widespread censorship campaign to silence critics who discussed information undermining Pfizer’s “false efficacy narrative.” “Over the course of 2021, Pfizer’s censorship campaign helped secure commitments to purchase at least 415 million and 2.7 billion doses from the U.S. and foreign governments respectively, displacing Pfizer’s rivals and achieving the status of first-choice vaccine,” prosecutors say. Paxton’s office is seeking civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation of the DTPA, which in total exceeds $10 million.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, alleging the company unlawfully misrepresented the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine and attempted to censor public discussion of the product.
