Pfizer: ‘Nobody was forced to have a vaccine’
Australian Pfizer officials last week tried to claim no one was forced to take the COVID-19 injections, instead saying people were “offered an opportunity” to take the shots.
Pfizer’s Head of Regulatory Sciences Dr. Brian Hewitt made the comments during an Australian Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee hearing. Dr. Hewitt and his colleague Pfizer Country Medical Director Dr. Krishan Thiru were hauled before the committee last week as part of an ongoing COVID-19 inquiry and were subjected to questioning by several senators.
Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson expressed her shock after Dr. Hewitt commented that nobody had been forced to take the injection.
“You were in Australia during COVID-19,” said Hanson. “You must have been fully aware that people—nurses, doctors—people, to have their jobs, to keep their jobs, were forced to have the vaccination. Now do you retract your statement that they were not forced?”
But Dr. Hewitt reaffirmed his claim that there had been no vaccine mandate, only an “opportunity”.
“Senator, no, I believe firmly that nobody was forced to have a vaccine. Mandates are vaccine requirements determined by governments and health authorities. Our belief, everybody was offered an opportunity to get a vaccine or not get a vaccine. I don’t believe that anybody was forced to get a vaccine,” said Dr. Hewitt.
“A lot of Australians will disagree with you on that one,” replied Hanson.
Australia’s vaccine mandate — which promised “freedom” to those who took the shots — was accompanied by dangerous rhetoric from government officials. Australia’s Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said in November 2021 that anyone who opposed the mandate or so much as gave comfort to someone who opposed the mandate would be considered an “anti-vaxxer.”
“If you are anti-mandate, you are absolutely anti-vaxx, I don’t care what your personal vaccination status is. If you support, champion. . .give comfort to, support anybody who argues against the vaccine, you are an anti-vaxxer,” said Gunner.
Pfizer is not alone in denying the recent vaccine mandates. Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose vaccine mandate for all Canadians over 12 was considered extraordinary, recently denied he had forced anyone to get vaccinated.
In 2021 Trudeau began ordering restrictions to force Canadians to take the injections, which included forbidding children 12 or over from traveling on public transportation. Federal workers who refused the shots were placed on unpaid leave, and unvaccinated Canadians were forbidden from entering the country or even crossing provincial borders.
“You don’t get to work in the public service, you don’t get to go to movie theaters or gyms or restaurants,” he told the unvaccinated in 2021. He added that “there are no more excuses to not get vaccinated” and that “enforcement measures are in place to ensure everyone gets vaccinated.”
As recently as last October, Trudeau was still threatening the Canadian population with more restrictions if vaccinations did not continue. The prime minister made several such ultimatums last year, including more lockdowns if every single Canadian did not become fully vaccinated.
Yet, during a talk at the University of Iowa in April, Trudeau said he only provided “incentives” for vaccinations in order to respect the individual choices of those who refused the shots.
“Individuals are allowed to make their own choices. There may be all sorts of reasons why someone is hesitant to get vaccinated,” said Trudeau. “And therefore, while not forcing anyone to get vaccinated, I chose to make sure all the incentives and all the protections were there to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated.”
