Kansas sues Pfizer over 'misrepresentations' and 'adverse events' of COVID-19 vaccine

FIRST ON FOX: The state of Kansas has filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc. for alleged consumer protection violations related to the company's manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the company marketed the shot as "safe" even though it "knew" the vaccine was connected to "serious adverse events." 

"Pfizer misled the public that it had a ‘safe and effective’ COVID-19 vaccine," the 69-page lawsuit filed Monday in the District Court of Thomas County alleges.

"Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine was safe even though it knew its COVID-19 vaccine was connected to serious adverse events, including myocarditis and pericarditis, failed pregnancies, and deaths. Pfizer concealed this critical safety information from the public," the suit alleges. 

"Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine was effective even though it knew its COVID-19 vaccine waned over time and did not protect against COVID-19 variants. Pfizer concealed this critical effectiveness information from the public," it says. 

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The lawsuit alleges that the company's "actions and statements relating to its COVID-19 vaccine" violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, "regardless of whether any individual consumer ultimately received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine."

"Pfizer must be held accountable for falsely representing the benefits of its COVID-19 vaccine while concealing and suppressing the truth about its vaccine’s safety risks, waning effectiveness, and inability to prevent transmission," the lawsuit says.

The suit, filed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, alleges that through the company's "misrepresentations" of the vaccine, it earned "record company revenue" of approximately $75 billion in just two years. 

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The lawsuit alleges that "millions of Kansans heard Pfizer’s misrepresentations about its COVID-19 vaccine." 

"For example, Pfizer administered 3,355,518 Pfizer vaccine doses in Kansas as of February 7, 2024. This accounted for more than 60% of all vaccine doses in Kansas," the lawsuit alleges, citing the state's Department of Health Data. 

The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer used various methods to "conceal critical data" related to the "safety and effectiveness" of the vaccine, including using confidentiality agreements, an extended timeline, and destroying the control group participating in its vaccine trial. 

"Because Pfizer unblinded the original control group and allowed them to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer, government regulators, and independent scientists cannot fully compare the safety and efficacy of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine against unvaccinated individuals," the lawsuit alleges.

"Pfizer’s extensive and aggressive efforts to keep its COVID-19 vaccine information hidden conflict with its public transparency pledges and raise serious questions about what Pfizer is hiding and why it is hiding it," it says. 

The lawsuit also alleges that Pfizer failed to disclose the limitations of its COVID-19 vaccine trials.

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"When Pfizer announced that the FDA had authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, Pfizer did not disclose that its trial included only healthy individuals and excluded unhealthy individuals," the suit claims. 

"Pfizer made representations about its COVID-19 vaccine’s safety knowingly or with reason to know that it did not possess a reasonable basis to represent that it was safe for individuals who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, who were immunocompromised, or who were pregnant or breastfeeding," it alleges. 

The suit also claims that Pfizer had knowledge of "safety issues" with the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Kobach alleges that Pfizer maintained its own adverse events database, separate from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) system, that "contain[ed] cases of [adverse events (AEs)] reported spontaneously to Pfizer, cases reported by the health authorities, cases published in the medical literature, cases from Pfizer-sponsored marketing programs, non-interventional studies, and cases of serious AEs reported from clinical studies regardless of causality assessment."

"Upon information and belief, Pfizer’s adverse events database contained more adverse event data than VAERS because it included both information in VAERS and information not in VAERS," the lawsuit alleges. 

"Pfizer did not publicly release adverse events data from its database," Kobach claims. 

Pfizer did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.