On December 16, 2020, ICAN submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which resulted in the production of an email showing the cozy relationship between Pfizer and the CDC official now heading up its COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
In February, CDC produced 40 pages of emails with redactions. ICAN, through its attorneys, appealed these redactions in May, and the CDC has now finally produced the documents with the major redactions lifted.
The unredacted documents reveal that Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, the current head of the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, received an email in 2012 from a medical lead at Pfizer stating, “I do want to accept your offer to talk with the FDA,” and that “we would appreciate it if you would be willing to follow up with the FDA and suggest that it is premature to add KD [Kawasaki Disease] to our label” for Pfizer’s PCV13 vaccine. It is incredibly revealing that Pfizer felt it had a cozy enough relationship with Dr. Shimabukuro to ask him to intervene with the FDA as to what is put on the label for a childhood vaccine sold by Pfizer!
Another individual at the CDC finally intervenes to explain that the CDC does “not provide advice for [the FDA’s] regulatory decisions,” but that was in 2012 when Dr. Shimabukuro was lower in the food chain at the CDC. He is now the head of the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force and, hence, who is now there to stop him from doing favors for Pfizer? Notably, KD is still not on the PCV13 label!
What other favors, oversights, etc., may Pfizer be benefiting from, at the expense of the American public, through its relationships with individuals inside the CDC? ICAN will never stop fighting to expose the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry and the conflicts of interest among the federal health authorities.
