By Ava Pritchard

For over 30 years, Johnson & Johnson knew that the company’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for asbestos, and the company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers fretted over the problem and how to address it while failing to disclose it to regulators or the public. When questioned, J&J assured the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that no asbestos was “detected in any sample.” As a result of their negligence and greed, roughfly 25 thousand of their customers developed a rare form of cancer and many died. The company announced last May that it would stop selling its iconic talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the US and Canada. J&J gaslight their own user-base by attributing their decision to “misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising.” And this is a company we are told to trust with our lives?

The four companies who have COVID vaccines on the market are or have either: never brought a vaccine to market before COVID (Moderna and Johnson & Johnson). Are serial felons (Pfizer, and AstraZeneca). Are both (Johnson & Johnson). Moderna had been trying to “Modernize our RNA” for years, but had never successfully brought any product to market until now (it seems the US government’s infusion of $1.53 billion dollars helped.) Meanwhile, all other vaccine manufacturers have paid out tens of billions of dollars in damages for other products they brought to market when they knew those products would cause injuries and death. If these drug companies willfully choose to put harmful products on the market when they can be sued, why would we trust any product where they have no liability?

Major Johnson & Johnson lawsuits and recalls for faulty products include:

• 2019: bribery (for illegally paying off government officials in return for securing contracts national health programs along with price gouging and inflating prices in Brazil
• 2011: corrupt payments to physicians in Greece
• 2010: buying off officials in Greece, Poland and Romania.
• 2013 & 2016: paid billions to compensate victims of their flawed products.
• 2008: engaged in a “phantom recall” when its Motrin IB caplets were discovered to not properly dissolve, J&J hired outside contractors to buy up store supplies in order to avoid making public declaration.
• 1995: paid a $7.5 million fine for destroying documents to cover up an investigation into wrongful marketing of its Retin-A acne cream.
• 2001: Paid out $860 million in a class action lawsuit for misleading customers about prematurely discarding its 1-Day Acuvue soft contact lens. J&J recommended they should be worn only once, although it was discovered the lenses were no different than the regular Acuvue lens that would last for two weeks.
• 2010: paid a $81 million settlement for misbranding its anti-epileptic drug Topamax to treat psychiatric disorders and hired outside physicians to join its sales force to promote the drug for unapproved conditions. The following year, J&J paid $85 million for similar charges against its heart drug Natrecor.
• 2011: Several J&J baby products were discovered to contain carcinogenic ingredients.
• 2013: The U.S. Justice Department charged the company $2.2 billion in criminal fines for marketing its autism and anti-psychotic drug Risperdal for unapproved uses.
• 2019: ordered to pay $465 million for its role in Oklahoma’s opioid epidemic.

While J&J’s rap sheet is long Pfizer has the distinction of the biggest criminal payout in history. The company lost so many lawsuits it’s hard to count. Below is a list of just some Pfizer’s crimes:

• 2009: paid a record $2.3 billion to settle federal charges for mis-promoting medicines not approved by medical regulators (Bextra) and paying kick-backs to compliant doctors.
• 1996: paid $10.75 million to settle Justice Department claims that the company lied to get federal approval for a mechanical heart valve that has been fracturing, killing hundreds of people.
• 2004: reached a $60 million settlement of a class action lawsuit over it’s Rezulin diabetes drug that resulted in liver failure and death.
• 2016: fined £85 million by the UK government for overcharging the NHS 2600%
• 2004: paid more than $430 to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities for manipulating the publication of scientific studies to bolster the use of its epilepsy drug Neurontin for other disorders, while supressing research that did not support those uses. They also paid physicians to prescribe the drug for other disorders, and partook in racketeering in the marketing of the drug. During the investigation, they admitted to paying $20 million to 4,500 doctors and other medical professionals for consulting and speaking on it’s behalf just in the last 6 months of 2009. Pfizer also paid $15.3 million to 250 academic medical centers and other research groups for clinical trials.
• 2012: US Securities and Exchange commission reached a $45 million settlement with Pfizer to resolve charges that its subsidiaries bribed overseas doctors to increase foreign sales.
• 2001: paid over $75 million dollars for breaking international laws for conducting an “illegal trial of an unregistered drug” after Nigerian families accused the company of testing 2 dangerous new antibiotics (Trovan & Ceftriaxone) without parents’ consent and using their children as human guineapigs. 11 children died, and other suffered brain damage, paralysis, and hearing loss.

Pfizer also pledged to donate and distribute $50 million worth of AIDS drugs, but never did. And more recently with the COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer is demanding that countries that don’t have liability protection put up collateral to cover vaccine-injury lawsuits. They have even demanded military bases as guarantee.

Finally, AstraZeneca has similarly lost so many lawsuits it’s hard to count. Many of their crimes are related to fraudulent marketing. The company had its COVID vaccine suspended in at least 18 countries over concerns of a rare form of blood clot occurring in young women, and it completely botched its meeting with the FDA when numbers from their study didn’t match. And then Johnson & Johnson and AstraZenca, had a little mix up in their ingredients in 15 million doses!

Given the free pass from liability, and the checkered past of these companies, why would we assume that all their vaccines are safe and made completely above board? Bernstein market analyst Ronny Gal predicts COVID-19 vaccine sales will reach $40 billion this year. A more realistic figure is likely higher as together, Moderna and Pfizer project their revenues at $32 billion. What crime might these companies commit to keep their vaccines on the market?

Previous to this year, approximately 6% of vaccines developed passed their trials and made it to market. Is it not odd that all of the vaccines developed for COVID so far have been approved for “Emergency Use Authorization” in the US and “Interim Order Authorization” in Canada (they cannot get FDA approval until their studies are completed)? Remember, we will not have access to the raw data of these studies until 2023. Until then, we just have to take the word of known liars and criminals. Where else in life would we trust someone with that kind of reputation, let alone trust someone with our lives?