State hid possible risks of vaccines against covid-19

The risks of vaccination were publicly minimized, as the State knew of possible “unknown adverse effects”. With doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccination, the president of Apifarma himself did not want to be vaccinated.

While conveying to the public a message of great confidence in vaccines against Covid-19, the Portuguese State signed contracts with pharmaceutical companies that recognized uncertainties about their effectiveness and long-term adverse effects.

The information was given this week by , which consulted these same contracts, signed with several companies — Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax, GSK and Sanofi.

“The participating Member State recognizes that the long-term effects and effectiveness of the Vaccine are not currently known“, reads at least four contracts signed between 2020 and 2021 with Pfizer/BioNTech, according to the weekly, where it is also admitted that “there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known.”

It is worth remembering that, during the vaccination campaign, the former Director General of Health, Graça Freitas, and the former Minister of Health Marta Temido repeatedly insisted on the idea that the vaccines were safe, effective and trustworthy. Only later — well after the State became aware of the possible risk — did the official discourse become more cautious, with warnings that they did not completely eliminate the possibility of infection or complications — despite reducing the risk of serious illness.

“Vaccines are safe, they have quality, but they are not miracles”, said Marta Temido in June 2021, now quoted by Sol. “The possibility of a vaccinated person contracting a serious form of the disease is reduced. But there is always a margin of risk that vaccines do not completely avoid.”

In July 2021, the European Medicines Agency’s safety committee concluded that there was sufficient evidence to establish a causal association between mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 and cases of myocarditis and pericarditis. From then on, these conditions began to appear on the leaflets as rare adverse reactions, but the DGS maintained recommendations in favor of vaccinating adolescents and, later, younger children — the benefits outweighed the risks, was the argument.

Eight thousand suspicions

In the same contracts signed with Pfizer, it is established that “It will have to be the Portuguese State that compensates people”if injuries caused by vaccines were proven.

By December 31, 2022, Infarmed will have received more than 39 thousand notifications regarding covid-19 vaccines, in a universe of around 28 million doses administered. Of these, 8,518 were classified as serious, including suspected deaths, life-threatening episodes and disabling situations.

These more than eight thousand cases do not demonstrate causality, but there was also no investigation by the regulatory authority. The Sun mentions the flagrant case of Leonor Reisa young woman from Madeira who suffered a cardiac arrest associated with myocarditis and who, according to the text, was considered “cured” by the registration system, despite remaining in a vegetative state.

The Parliamentary Health Committee announced its intention to ask the Directorate-General for Health and Infarmed for clarification.

President of Apifarma did not want to be vaccinated

O Sol also adds that the president of the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Industry Association (APIFARMA), João Almeida Lopesrefused to take any dose of the covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic, opting instead to resort to ivermectin as a form of prophylaxis and initial treatment of the disease.

The decision, which would have been shared with friends and acquaintances, was based on doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines and concerns about the safety of products placed on the market within a short period of time.

João Almeida Lopes It would not have been an isolated case. Other pharmaceutical industry officials and several doctors have also reportedly refused mRNA vaccines, arguing that this option should not automatically be associated with ignorance or denialism.

This was the case, for example, of Antonio Pedro Machadoa doctor who is one of the greatest advocates of the use of ivermectinwhich will come from the Portuguese branch of the laboratory that produces the medicine in India.

In fact, in groups of doctors on social networks, possible serious adverse effects were discussed, although without presenting conclusive proofaccording to the investigation.

Ivermectin, touted as an alternative to vaccines, is a antiparasitic Originating in the 70s, used mainly in veterinary treatments.

It resulted from the work of scientists Satoshi Ōmura and William C. Campbell, a distinction recognized with the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015. Initially introduced to the veterinary market in 1981, it was approved for human use in 1987 in the treatment of onchocerciasis, known as “river blindness”.