Pfizer toxicology testimony

A former Pfizer Europe toxicologist used a March 19 hearing in Germany’s parliament to argue that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot was approved without enough safety testing, and clips of his remarks are now spreading online. (bundestag.de) The witness was Helmut Sterz, listed by the Bundestag as a toxicologist and former Pfizer chief toxicologist, appearing before the Enquete Commission reviewing Germany’s pandemic response. In its official summary, the Bundestag said Sterz called the vaccine studies “simulated” and spoke of an “immunization tragedy” with “millions of victims.” (bundestag.de; bundestag.de) The widely shared death figure did not come from a Bundestag finding. It comes from Sterz’s own estimate, repeated in secondary coverage, that Germany’s vaccine death toll could be around 60,000 by applying an under-reporting factor to adverse-event reports. (sott.net; notrickszone.com) Germany’s inquiry is a parliamentary review body, not a court or drug regulator. The commission was created to examine the country’s handling of the pandemic and is taking testimony from critics and defenders of the vaccine campaign, including former health minister Karl Lauterbach. (bundestag.de; bundestag.de) At the same March 19 session, Lauterbach rejected Sterz’s account. The Bundestag’s official write-up quotes Lauterbach saying the vaccines’ safety had been well studied, that vaccination reduced mortality among vaccinated people, and that vaccines did not cause excess mortality. (bundestag.de) The basic dispute is about what counts as enough evidence in an emergency. Sterz argued that carcinogenicity and reproductive-toxicity work was incomplete or insufficient before rollout, while European regulators authorized Comirnaty in December 2020 after a conditional review designed for a public-health emergency. (bundestag.de; ema.europa.eu) Germany’s drug safety authority, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, still says suspected adverse-event reports are only a starting point and do not by themselves prove a vaccine caused a death or injury. The institute says it collects and reviews those reports to detect safety signals and monitor the risk-benefit profile over time. (pei.de) That distinction is central to the viral posts: Sterz presented an expert opinion to lawmakers, but neither the Bundestag summary nor the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut says Germany has established 20,000 to 60,000 vaccine deaths. The hearing put the claim into the parliamentary record; it did not settle it. (bundestag.de; pei.de)