The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded pharmaceutical giant Pfizer $1.24 billion for COVID-19 jabs, The Defender reports.

“The contracts, awarded on June 1, include about $735.7 million for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines and nearly $505.3 million for adult doses for fiscal year 2026-2027,” the outlet stated.

The Defender explained further:

Critics say the funding reflects a continued commitment to vaccines associated with high rates of serious injuries and deaths, and a lack of adequate safety testing and monitoring.

Public health experts argue the investment is necessary to protect vulnerable populations and prepare for future outbreaks.

The latest contracts come as mRNA technology expands beyond COVID-19.

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A recent review in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics found that mRNA-based therapeutics were identified in more than 550 registered clinical trials. The authors reported that more than 90% of the projects involved mRNA vaccines and that most products remain in early-stage testing before broader adoption.

The procurement of monetary resources signals that federal officials intend to continue investing heavily in mRNA technology despite declining public demand and ongoing controversy over vaccine safety monitoring, critics say.

Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, told The Defender there was “no scientific justification” or “market demand” for the latest mRNA vaccine funding.

“This raises a serious question concerning how these captured agencies really work,” Tucker said. “We are talking about vast amounts of tax dollars flowing to support unnecessary and often harmful injections.”

“Below is the letter we just sent on behalf of @ICANdecide, @React19org and others to current CDC Acting Director, @DrJBhattacharya, regarding $1.5 billion contracts for Covid-19 vaccines. I am confident Dr. Bhattacharya and @SecKennedy would prefer to direct these funds toward treating and compensating the vaccine injured. I hope the White House will let that happen. As a country, we should take care of those harmed before we rush forward harming others,” attorney Aaron Siri said.

Read the full letter below:

Dear Dr. Bhattacharya,

We write on behalf of ICAN, React19, and numerous others to express our deep concern and disappointment that CDC has agreed to purchase $1.55 billion worth of pediatric and adult Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, and to raise serious concern regarding a potential violation of federal law.[1]

For the millions of Americans harmed by these products, this decision is deeply painful. Rather than directing resources towards treating those whose lives have been devastated, CDC has chosen to further enrich Pfizer and Moderna. The vaccine-injured deserve acknowledgement and care—not abandonment. The tens of thousands of individuals with serious injuries who have contacted our firm alone, and the over 40,000 members of just one group, React19,[2] with serious injuries represent real people whose suffering demands recognition. To allocate more than a billion and a half tax dollars to Pfizer and Moderna while offering those injured by their products nothing is a profound betrayal.

We struggle to comprehend how CDC’s current leadership can continue to disregard, among others, the following established facts:

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•CDC fought in court for over 2 years to prevent public disclosure of data which showed that over 7% of the 10 million V-safe users reported needing medical care after a Covid vaccine, on average 2 to 3 times each, with over 70% of those medical encounters resulting in hospitalization, emergency room visits, or urgent care.[3]

•The fact that FDA fought for years to hide data, recently released, showing that when FDA adequately conducted empirical Bayesian analysis internally, it revealed significant safety signals that were hidden from the public.[4]

•In the clinical trial for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, there were 21 deaths in the vaccinated group and 17 deaths in the placebo group—meaning more deaths occurred in the vaccinated group—during the same time period, and where the placebo group contained more participants than the vaccinated group.[5]

•Those seriously injured by this product have been left without recourse because pharmaceutical companies have been granted complete immunity under the PREP Act, while the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) remains woefully underfunded and structurally designed to deny compensation (only 0.39% [56 of 14,152] of COVID-related CICP claims have been compensated, with an average payout, excluding three outliers, of a miserly $5,052.57 per claimant)[6]—leaving the injured with nowhere to turn.

•Five years after assuring the world these products are safe, the manufacturers still require PREP Act immunity for the very harms they claim will not occur—an obvious contradiction that requires suspending reality and reason to believe.

Until PREP Act immunity is lifted and the full scope of harm is properly accounted for, the CDC should not direct over a billion and a half dollars to Pfizer and Moderna. These funds should instead be used to treat and compensate those who have already been seriously harmed—the people who have been waiting far too long for help. The people who the CDC assured this product was safe.

CDC should cancel these contracts on the basis that it would be the moral, ethical, and compassionate thing to do. But if it won’t do so on those bases then, in order to confirm these contracts do not violate federal law, and to avoid litigation, please confirm forthwith that the procurement contracts with Pfizer and Moderna were not in any manner related to the Vaccines for Children Program (VFC), and that absent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approval, they will not be part of this program.

As you are no doubt aware, absent approval from ACIP, the vaccines procured from Pfizer and Moderna pursuant to these contracts cannot be procured, distributed, or administered through the VFC, and any such conduct would be a clear violation of federal law.[7] As provided in Section 1928 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1396s), the VFC mandates that only vaccines recommended by ACIP may be provided under the VFC. Specifically, 42 U.S.C. § 1396s(e) requires the Secretary to use “the list established (and periodically reviewed and as appropriate revised) by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.”

Accordingly, unless and until ACIP affirmatively recommends these Covid-19 vaccines for the applicable pediatric populations, any distribution or administration of the vaccines procured under these contracts through the VFC would constitute a violation of Section 1928 and its implementing regulations.

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Please confirm forthwith that the procurement contracts have been cancelled and that the funds will be reallocated to assist the vaccine injured. We hope, given your prior statements regarding these products, that you will take this approach. But if the moral and humane approach is not taken, at the very least please confirm forthwith that these procurement contracts are entirely unrelated to the VFC.

Very truly yours,
/s/ Aaron Siri

“This is $1.24 billion for what is essentially a cold in minor children,” said Children’s Health Defense Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker, according to The Defender.

Daniel O’Connor, publisher of TrialSite News, told the outlet that Americans “better start asking the hard questions.”

“If demand is falling, safety questions remain contested and many reporting vaccine injuries say they’ve been left behind, why is Washington committing another $1.24 billion to vaccine procurement instead of first providing a transparent accounting of need, benefit, risk, and responsibility?” O’Connor said.

TrialSite News has more:

The broader story may be less about Pfizer and more about public trust.

Federal agencies continue investing heavily in COVID-19 vaccination infrastructure even as portions of the public increasingly question both the products and the institutions promoting them.

For policymakers, the challenge is straightforward: demonstrate that procurement decisions are scientifically justified, economically rational, and transparent.

For citizens, the responsibility is equally clear: separate documented facts from political narratives—whether they originate from government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, or vaccine critics.

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The contracts are real.

The debate over whether they represent prudent public health planning or institutional inertia is only beginning.

 

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