Professional Ethics Front, an independent Israeli group of physicians, lawyers, scientists, and researchers has expressed its “severe concerns” regarding the reliability and legality of official Israeli COVID vaccine data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is set to decide on recommending administering Pfizer vaccines to U.S. children ages 5-11.
The FDA relies heavily on data from Israel, which unrolled the world’s fastest vaccination campaign with 65 percent of the population being fully vaccinated as of October 23 and just under four million eligible Israelis having already taken a third dose in a country of nine million people.
While Israeli health authorities have not yet approved the Pfizer shot for children ages 5-11, Professional Ethics Front noted in its letter that “Israel is perceived as ‘the world laboratory’ regarding the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.”
The group further acknowledged the fact that “the data and information coming from Israel play a crucial role in critical decision-making processes in regards to COVID-19 vaccination policies,” while stating the data is “flawed,” and its collection is accomplished by “significant legal and ethical violations.”
The letter outlines what it describes as “the main failures” of Israel’s data and reporting.
1. Lack of a Public and Transparent Adverse Events (AE) Reporting System
Israel does not have a “proper and transparent” system that tracks AEs associated with the vaccines, the letter states, adding that “healthcare professionals or citizens in Israel, who wish to submit reports of AEs following vaccination, are unable to do so.”
While the Ministry of Health (MOH) has an online AE reporting form available, this form “was for many months not useful since it did not allow the inclusion of personal contact information.” In addition to that, the free text field intended to describe the AEs allowed users to enter a limited number of characters, which means detailed reports could not be submitted. Finally, the symptoms list available to choose from was also very limited and included only mild AEs.
While the system was later fixed and the list was expanded, “the modification of the form was made very late, after the majority of the adult population had already been vaccinated,” the group complains.
Such critical information as the AEs that occur in the “most vulnerable populations” such as pregnant women and seniors are not being tracked at all, per the letter.
2. Severe Obstacles to Reporting Adverse Events
The physicians and medical teams encounter “great obstacles” when attempting to report AEs associated with the jabs.
Citing the numerous testimonies of healthcare practitioners, the letter states that there is an “immense underreporting of AEs” which are “only rarely reported in exceptional cases.”
The letter alleges the MOH dismisses almost all reports on severe adverse events such heart inflammation in young vaccine recipients.
3. Data Distortion
The MOH seems to deliberately try to avoid any public discussion on the jabs’ safety. Recently, MOH is alleged to have deleted “thousands” of citizens’ critical responses to a post entitled “Let’s talk about the adverse events,” claiming that the vaccine is “completely safe” and that severe AEs are “extremely rare.”
The MOH is also accused of misleading the public on the effectiveness of Pfizer’s third dose, which turned out to be much lower than was previously claimed.
4. Legal and Ethical Violations in Data-collection Processes
The signatories state that the Pfizer shots are administered to Israelis without their informed consent, which is “a clear violation of the Nuremberg Code Rules, the Patient’s Bill of Rights, and the Israeli MOH directives for clinical trials on humans.” At the same time, “the Israeli citizens are under tremendous pressure to get vaccinated, almost to the point of coercion.” Indeed, on June 22, prime minister Naftali Bennett announced those failing to present a proof of vaccination or negative COVID tests would be barred entry from places such as movie theaters, sports games, amusement parks, synagogues, or activities attended by 100 or more people.
In September, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz warned that the government might cancel the so-called Green Pass of people not inoculated with three doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
The Professional Ethics Front’s letter closes with a quote from the Torah:
In the Book of Leviticus, it is said “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed”. In the spirit of those words, we implore the committee to take into consideration our urgent warnings and adopt utmost precaution when referring to the Israeli data concerning the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccines.”
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is meeting on Tuesday to discuss a request to amend Pfizer-BioNTech’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for administration of their shot to children five through 11 years of age.
On Friday, the FDA posted a briefing document claiming that the Pfizer vaccine’s benefits in preventing hospitalizations and deaths “would clearly outweigh” any serious side effects in children.
If the FDA decides the shot is “safe and effective” for children, the CDC’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices would recommend its use on November 2-3.
On October 20, the Biden administration announced it has already acquired enough Pfizer child-sized doses to inoculate the nation’s 28 million children and is setting up all the necessary infrastructure to achieve that.
