As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discusses administering COVID-19 vaccines to young children, an independent group of Israeli physicians, lawyers, scientists and researchers is advising the FDA of their "severe concerns" regarding the reliability and legality of official Israeli vaccine data.
The Israeli group, the Israeli Professional Ethics Front, said it recognises the Jewish state has been seen as "the world laboratory" regarding the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
But the data is flawed, the group said in its letter.
The letter stated
We believe that the significant failures underlying the Israeli database, which have been brought to our attention by numerous testimonies, impair its reliability and legality to such an extent that it should not be used for making any critical decisions regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.
The letter by the Israeli Professional Ethics Front outlines what it describes as "the main failures" of Israel's data and reporting.
- Lack of a Public and Transparent Adverse Events Reporting System
- Severe Impairments in Healthcare Professionals’ Adverse Events Reporting System
- Data Distortion (including the deletion of thousands of citizen responses to a post by the Israeli Ministry of Health)
- Legal and Ethical Violations in Data Collection Processes
The group cited a verse from the biblical book of Leviticus that says
Do not stand idly by while your neighbour's blood is shed.
In the spirit of those words, we implore the committee to take into consideration our urgent warnings and adopt utmost precaution when referring to the Israeli data concerning the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccines.