FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo/File Photo
A PR company that represents Pfizer and Moderna has staff ’embedded’ in the CDC‘s vaccine division, it has emerged.
New York-based firm Weber Shandwick has been responsible for elevating Pfizer’s profile since at least 2006. It partnered with Moderna in June this year, after the small biotech firm became a household name following its vaccine success.
Yet questions are being raised about a possible conflict of interest as it emerged the company was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the pandemic to boost its ‘health communication’.
It was involved in PR campaigns that encouraged Americans to get vaccinated against Covid.
But a spokesperson for Weber Shandwick told DailyMail.com it had a ‘thorough vetting and mitigation process to avoid conflicts’.
Vaccine makers made more than $34billion in profits last year from the Covid jabs alone — equivalent to $1,000 a second, according to estimates.
They are expected to make billions more from the bivalent booster jabs being rolled out this winter — with the US having bought 171million doses.
Today the updated shots — which tackle Omicron variants — got the green light for children as young as five years old. They are currently recommended for all over-12s.
Weber Shandwick works for the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).
The potential conflict of interest was brought to attention in a LinkedIn post by an employee of the PR firm last year.
They wrote on the social media site: ‘So excited to be starting a new role today! I’m joining Weber Shandwick as an Account Director supporting a contract I know well, at the CDC’s NCIRD!’
Another employee replied: ‘Welcome back to the team!’
In 2020 Weber Shandwick also won an up to $50million contract from the US Government to promote flu vaccines to the public.
Its responsibilities included distributing social media posts and articles promoting vaccines, and sending press releases to the media.
It was also involved in ‘paid media placement’, a common euphemism for advertising.
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