Video distorts Pfizer executive’s statement on Covid vaccine effectiveness

The speech of Croatian politician and lawyer Mislav Kolakusic is misleading, who suggests the ineffectiveness of vaccination against Covid-19 in reducing the number of deaths due to the disease, calling vaccines “fake”. The statement is echoed in a post circulating on TikTok, which inserts the words on the video: “Pfizer admits to worldwide crime”.

As verified by Projeto Comprova, Kolakusic distorts a statement given by Pfizer pharmaceutical executive Janine Small to the European Parliament, on October 10th. At the time, Janine stated that the company just did not test before the vaccine was made available, with regard to the impact on the transmission of the coronavirus between humans.

Regarding deaths, Janine cites the opposite of what the Croatian suggests, and mentions a study by the Imperial College of London, published in June 2022, which estimated a reduction of 19.8 million deaths from Covid-19 worldwide due to to vaccination. The snippet does not appear in the verified post.

In addition to these data, the report sought information on the websites of the EMA (European Medicines Agency) and the ONS (Office for National Statistics), in the United Kingdom, which reinforce the effectiveness of vaccines against deaths from Covid-19.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content removed from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that induces an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that is confusing, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Reach

Until November 11, the publication had 40.4 thousand likes, in addition to 2.1 thousand comments and 22.2 thousand shares.

What the publisher says

It was not possible to make contact with the author of the publication, as TikTok does not allow the exchange of messages between accounts that do not follow each other. Searches for a similar profile were made on other platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, but without success. On Instagram, a profile with the same description was identified, however, the account does not allow direct messaging. Despite the similarity in the description of the user, the accounts have different contents and there are no elements that allow inferring that both belong to the same person.

How do we check

The verified post is a video in which a man quotes a statement by a Pfizer executive, which was made to Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament Rob Roos. A Google search for the terms “rob roos interview pfizer director vaccine” led to a video on Roos’ Facebook page in which he echoes the statement. From the material, it was possible to locate the entire hearing on the European Parliament website, understand its context, in addition to identifying the main stakeholders.

The verified post bears the subscription of the Telegram channel from which the video was taken. On Twitter of the same channel, it was possible to find a publication with the same video in a format that allowed the reading of the name of the man who makes the misleading statement: Mislav Kolakusic, representative of Croatia in the European Parliament.

In addition to the Pfizer executive’s statement, he superficially cites data from the National Health Service (NHS), in England. Comprova made contact with the NHS, but did not receive a response until the closing of this verification. However, research on the websites of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Imperial College of London and the ONS, in the United Kingdom, confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing deaths from Covid-19, contrary to what Mislav Kolakusic suggests in the post. misleading.

unrelated

The video used in the verified post shows a statement by Mislav Kolakusic at the European Parliament. Croatian lawyer and politician, he echoes a response given on October 10 by Janine Small, an executive at Pfizer, to Dutch politician Rob Roos, also in the European Parliament, to suggest that vaccines are ineffective and that, therefore, pharmaceutical companies should be processed and the European Union reimbursed for the purchase of immunizers. Kolakusic and Roos are representatives of their countries in the European Parliament.

To Rob Roos, Janine Small states (from 15:31:44) that tests were not carried out in relation to a possible break in the chain of transmission of the coronavirus before the Pfizer vaccine was made available to the market. On his Facebook page, Roos uses only an excerpt of the response to criticize the vaccine passport, implemented in several countries on the grounds that, when vaccinated, protection was also conferred on others.

To Janine Small’s response, Mislav Kolakusic adds, on another occasion and without further details, that data from NHS England show that there is no difference between infections and deaths from Covid-19 between those who were vaccinated with up to four doses and those who were not vaccinated. The statement was shared by Kolakusic on Twitter🇧🇷 With that, the Croatian calls the vaccines “fake” and asks for the interruption of the purchase of more doses, reimbursement of what has already been paid and that pharmaceutical companies and laboratories be sued.

less deaths

Contrary to what Mislav Kolakusic claims, data from Europe and England show that vaccines were effective in preventing deaths from Covid-19. Janine Small’s full response (from 15:31:44) contains information overlooked in the videos shared by Roos and Kolakusic, which went viral on social media. She cites a study by the Imperial College of London, from June 2022, which estimates that vaccination against Covid-19 prevented 19.8 million deaths worldwide. The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, analyzed data from 185 countries.

Another piece of data that contradicts the statement made by the Croatian politician is that of the Office for National Statistics, an official body in the United Kingdom. The analysis of deaths between 1 January 2021 and 31 May 2022 in England from Covid-19, according to vaccination status, shows two main conclusions:

• Consistent reduction in deaths each month after the introduction of the third dose in September 2021, when comparing those vaccinated with the third or fourth dose and unvaccinated or vaccinated with one or two doses.
• Higher number of deaths among those who took the second dose six months ago than among those who took the second dose at a later period, which indicates a possible reduction in the protection afforded by the vaccine over time.

EMA, equivalent to Anvisa in Brazil, maintains a page on its website with updated data on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19 approved in Europe — Pfizer among them. Until October 2022, there were almost 926 million doses applied in Europe. The EMA claims the vaccines are safe and effective, having met all of the agency’s criteria for efficacy, safety and quality in tens of thousands of trials.

Why do we investigate?

Comprova investigates suspicious content that goes viral on social media about the pandemic, federal government public policies and presidential elections. The verified video denies the empirically proven effectiveness of using immunizations against Covid-19, including in reducing the number of deaths and more serious manifestations of the disease, reinforcing the denialist discourse disseminated in different ways in different parts of the world. In cases like this, misinformation can put people’s lives at risk.

Also investigated by UOL Verify, Croatian Mislav Kolakusic’s statement was identified as distorted.

About the pandemic, Projeto Comprova investigated, for example, that the allegations of a doctor who treats Covid vaccination in children as “mass murder” are false.