When Pfizer-BioNTech shareholders and execs met online at a conference hosted by Barclays Bank in March to discuss how the biggest campaign with the fastest-produced vaccine in world history was progressing, adverse events did not make the agenda.
The discussion was primarily focused on manufacturing and rollout, projected revenues, pricing, the power of franchise and growth opportunities.
There was no mention of the headlines across the globe about nursing home residents dying suddenly after injections of Covid vaccine or people testing Covid positive after the shot or those who had anaphylactic shock reactions or data finding high rates of facial paralysis.
Blood clots
Investors are not generally interested in product side-effects unless they impact the bottom line. European stock markets fell in March, however, as one after another, government regulators in 20 different European countries suspended distribution of all or some of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine over growing concerns about blood clots.
Italy was investigating the death of a 52-year-old music teacher, Sandro Tognatti, who died within hours of taking the vaccine, and two other deaths on the island of Sicily.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health also said it was investigating a death and other reports of health care workers under 50 who had rare and serious brain hemorrhaging and blood clots.
