Pfizer Photo:VCG

An undercover video featuring an allegedly Pfizer executive bragging about how his company was exploring intentionally mutating COVID strains to profit from future mRNA vaccines has exploded across social media recently. 

In the video, Jordon Trishton Walker, described as Pfizer Director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations and mRNA Scientific Planning, claims that his company is exploring a way to "mutate" COVID via "Directed Evolution" to preempt the development of future vaccines. The man told a Project Veritas journalist about Pfizer's plan for COVID vaccines, while acknowledging that people would not like this information if it went public. 

Pfizer on Friday issued a statement in response saying "in the ongoing development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer has not conducted gain of function or directed evolution research," but it added "In a limited number of cases when a full virus does not contain any known gain of function mutations, such virus may be engineered to enable the assessment of antiviral activity in cells." 

The video has sparked wide public concern with over 41.2 million views on Twitter alone. 

Walker also bluntly said in the video that COVID is going to be a "cash cow" for Pfizer for a while going forward. Is Pfizer really manipulating COVID-19 for profits and does it in secret? How far has the research gone? What risks will it bring? The public naturally has many questions and demands answers. However, most of the US and Western mainstream media outlets and US politicians have collectively kept mum on the issue revealed in the video. This is quite abnormal in the American public opinion field known for its diversity.
The authenticity of this video has yet to be confirmed. In the face of public doubts, shouldn't the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), lawmakers and the media conduct further investigations and give the public an explanation? 

Till now, the vast majority of US media outlets and politicians are ignoring it. This is in stark contrast to their keenness to hype the odds of new COVID mutations after China optimized its COVID policies. On the issue concerning a big US pharmaceutical company, it seems American media outlets are all much more "professional and rational." They are quite prudent to make any conclusion.

If an undercover video of similar kind was exposed in China, there is no doubt that the Chinese public and officials would take it very seriously. Not only the company involved must give a detailed explanation, relevant authorities will quickly conduct an investigation to find the truth. 

Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News, was a rarity among US media persons on this issue as he touched upon the topic. "In this country, drug companies spend more on lobbying the Congress than any other industry, a lot more than any other industry and they don't do it by accident. They do it because it pays off," Tucker said.   

According to data from Pfizer, more than 4.3 billion Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines were shipped to 181 countries across the world by the late of 2022. Not long ago, Albert Bourla, Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, encountered a series of tough questions from a journalist about the efficacy of its COVID vaccine on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting.

"Western media doesn't speak for truth, but is profits-oriented," a Chinese expert who requires anonymity told the Global Times. "Everyone knows that major American pharmaceutical companies and capital-controlled mainstream media are inextricably linked by interests. The silence of many media outlets in face of the video once again reflects the hypocrisy of US media."