Lack of space for evidence based dialogue on COVID 19

 Lack of space for evidence-based debate on pertinence of strategies to confront COVID and potential conflicts of interest of media and political decision makers

 Big tech in alliance with major social networks have banned what they judge[1] as fake news and even questions on vaccine safety[2]. In fact, the main social media and big pharma share capital interests through Black Rock and Vanguard (soon to manage $ 20 trillion[3]) major asset management firms[4]^,[5] who exert major influence on governments worldwide[6] As a result, the space for open and transparent debate on pros and cons of the political decisions -mainly adhering to systematic lockdown and universal vaccination (with exclusive access to mRNA vaccines in high-income countries)- is very narrow[7] and hard to find. Big Pharma invested some $6.6 billion in advertising alone in the USA[8], which is more than the overall budget of the World Health Organization and six times its baseline budget from country contributions[9]. The link to the overall political and media powers relates to the major gains of  pharmaceutical corporations boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic which has meant direct profits of more than USD 30,000 million[10]. Moreover, the public access to the information on protocols and side effects of the corporations’ clinical trials, and their contracts with purchasing countries, has been limited[11]. The mentioned contracts include disclaimer clauses, which exonerate the companies’ responsibilities in case of severe side effects[12]. Such secrecy is even more bothering when the COVID vaccine producer leading the market, Pfeizer[13], has paid during the last 20 years $4.7 billion in penalties and settlements for false marketing claims and health safety violations.

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[1] https://sundial.csun.edu/167028/opinions/having-big-tech-in-charge-of-censorship-is-a-slippery-slope-to-disaster/

[2] https://www.newsweek.com/big-tech-censorship-covid-information-leads-vaccine-hesitancy-opinion-1644051

[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-04/blackrock-and-vanguard-s-20-trillion-future-is-closer-than-you-think

[4] https://diario16.com/que-tienen-en-comun-los-principales-medios-de-comunicacion-y-las-farmaceuticas-pfizer-moderna-o-astrazeneca/

[5] https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/blackrock-vanguard-own-big-pharma-media/

[6] https://prospect.org/economy/blackrock-rules-world/

[7]https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/covid-19-global-attack-on-freedom-of-expression-is-having-a-dangerous-impact-on-public-health-crisis/

[8] https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-ad-spenders-big-pharma-for-2020

[9] https://www.who.int/about/accountability/budget

[10] Https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-making-1000-profit-every-second-while-worlds-poorest

[11] https://www.transparency.org/en/press/covid-19-vaccines-lack-of-transparency-trials-secretive-contracts-science-by-press-release-risk-success-of-global-response

[12] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/covid-vaccine-side-effects-compensation-lawsuit.html

[13] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1198516/covid-19-vaccinations-administered-us-by-company/