In news releases issued just hours apart, experts with the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights appear to disagree on whether Pfizer is conducting unauthorized human experiments with its COVID vaccine, with the help of Israel’s government.
At 4:14 p.m. January 18, 2021, a news report said the committee in charge of supervising human trials had decided the vaccine was still a part of human clinical studies and, therefore, should have received preapproval to be used as such. As a study, citizens who receive the vaccine would need to be told they were part of a study, and would be offered the right to refuse it.
“It is clear, unequivocal and unambiguous that this is a clinical study for all intents and purposes, and thus, it needed to be approved by the Helsinki Committee," a senior official explained to news agency Calcalist … "There’s nothing wrong with clinical trials … but clinical trials (human trials) must get committee approval, and of course, from the people on whom the trial is being conducted, while giving the right to refuse to be part of the trial. These are very basic matters,"
Hours later, at 10:44 p.m., a new report featuring Helsinki Committee chairman Eitan Friedman said that “transferring the information to Pfizer is not an 'experiment' and does not require the approval of the Helsinki Committee." Friedman said the whole issue stemmed from certain members interpreting the 20-page Pfizer agreement differently.
However, senior attorney for Israel Democracy Institute, Tehila Schwarz-Altshuler, disagreed. "Anyone who might claim this is not a clinical study is simply a liar. This is the most extensive study of human beings in the 21st century. Israel is becoming the experimental field, not to mention the backyard for the whole world. It may be a beautiful and altruistic thing, but this should have been shared with the citizens of Israel."
SOURCES:
Israel National News January 18, 2021
Israel National News January 18, 2021