This seems to me not to be direct misinformation, but misleading through the interpretation of the question and answer by the MEP.
His first assertion was
"
At the time of introduction, the vaccine had never been tested on stopping the transmission of the virus"
Now, this isn't
exactly what the Pfizer director said, but I will come onto that later.
The important part of his first statement is highlighted in bold. Is this true? Probably. At the time of introduction, vaccine development was moving at a pace never seen before, and the key aim was
not transmission reduction, but to reduce the numbers of people experiencing severe or fatal reactions to catching covid, plus - I assume - ensuring the vaccine was safe. I imagine that the speed with which the vaccines were needed meant studies into transmission reduction which would necessitate lengthy large trials were not possible. Hence, at the time of introduction, the capabilities of the vaccine in relation to transmission were not so well understood. I remember this clearly at the introduction of the vaccine - there was a lot written in the press about the fact it
might not reduce transmission.
Now back to the nuance of what the MEP said against the actual response. She states "regarding knowledge about stopping immunisation before it entered the market...". This is a pretty clumsy sentence, but this is not the same as saying it had never been tested on stopping the transmission of the virus. Tests may have been done, but were not comprehensive enough to know with a high degree of certainty at the time it entered the market how efficient it was at stopping transmission.
Anyway, the real misleading part is that this question related to
when the vaccines were introduced. But we are now a year or two on from vaccine introduction and the COVID vaccines have had a
lot of studies. Like
this one reported in Nature. Which showed significant reductions in transmission with vaccination with the Omicron variant. Or this one by
Public Heath England which concluded
In addition to the direct effects of preventing cases and reducing severity, we have shown that both the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 vaccines are associated with reduced likelihood of household transmission by 40-50% from individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 after vaccination, highlighting important wider benefits to close contacts.
Finally, the way that the PFizer director's response was cut makes me suspicious. It was in mid-sentence. What did she say next? Maybe something that related to the transmission studies done subsequent to vaccine introduction? Who knows?
In any case, the conclusion the MEP draws is deeply flawed. His reasoning is that the promotion of having the vaccine "for the benefit of others" is "a myth". But that is a conclusion drawn from data that was available at the point in time the vaccine was introduced. Not now, with the benefit of all the subsequent studies.
