Local Doctor Issues “Apology Over Covid-19 Vaccination After Pfizer News” But What Was It Really About?
Dr Syafiq Nordin apologized on Facebook after recent news regarding Pfizer’s ‘social media behaviour’ in 2020.
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A local doctor, Dr Syafiq Nordin, recently “apologised” on Facebook for allegedly providing misleading medical advice regarding Covid-19 vaccination to the public.
This is believed to have stemmed from the recent news of Pfizer being “deeply sorry” for its “social media behaviour” back in 2020, when the Covid-19 vaccine was not yet released.
Pfizer was accused of “bringing discredit” on the pharmaceutical industry after senior employees promoted its “unlicensed” (at the time) Covid-19 vaccine through social media at the height of the pandemic.
Prior to apologising, Dr Syafiq wrote on Facebook on 17 April: “Oh dear, announcing you’re sorry on Raya eve. Just a few thousand dollars in fine? Is it worth the cost of the disease and the lives lost?”
In the comment section, he shared a link to the Pfizer news report by BioPharma Reporter.
Dr Syafiq’s “apology” was posted on Facebook the same day, about an hour later. It is believed his “apology” was based on the BioPharma Reporter article he earlier shared.
A Facebook user asked Dr Syafiq if he read the article and if he did, what did he understand from it.
“Please make me understand the link between this article and your apology, because I don’t see the relevance,” the Facebook user said.
However, Dr Syafiq has not addressed this concern as at press time.
So what was Dr Syafiq apologising about?
In his “apology” post, Dr Syafiq said “in light of the recent Pfizer news” he claimed the truth had come to light about the weaknesses in the industry he too was part of.
He said there was sadness in him, because before he met someone named Dr Razin Jaafar, there had been “many mistakes in the medical advice he gave, particularly concerning cov-v”.
It is unclear what he meant by “cov-v” but it could be “Covid vaccine”.
He thanked Dr Razin for guiding and advising him regarding the matter at hand.
Dr Syafiq shared that the vaccine was seen as the best solution to protect the public from Covid-19 at the time and he also took three doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
He now seeks forgiveness for any of his mistakes made in the past two years. He promises to give the public more holistic advice, aligning more with Dr Razin’s Restorative knowledge.
What was Pfizer apologising for?
First of all, it is important to note that Pfizer was not apologising for its Covid-19 vaccine in general.
According to BioPharma Reporter, Pfizer UK’s medical director Dr Berkley Philips retweeted a post made by the company’s US employee in 2020 on the vaccine’s efficacy. The post also thanked the volunteers who participated in the vaccine’s trial.
However, this did not sit well with pharmaceutical watchdog the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).
They ruled that the post contained limited information on the vaccine’s efficacy, made no mention of adverse affects and bore no safety information.
This meant that the company, at the time, had promoted an “unlicensed medicine on Twitter”.
Pfizer was charged £34,800 in administrative costs following the tweets.
As PMCPA investigated Pfizer’s “misuse of social media to misleadingy and illegally promote their Covid-19 vaccine” futher, they found more “misbehaviour”.
Pfizer UK responded by saying they were “deeply sorry and that they fully recognised and accepted the issues highlighted by the PMCPA ruling”.
The company is also reviewing its employees’ social media use to avoid future regulatory missteps.
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