[FALSE] Has Pfizer submitted delisting application after being forced to reveal 1,291 side effects of its COVID-19 vaccine?

 

Screenshot of the LIHKG post.

(*Click to view larger image)

 

The Claim and Our Verdict

• The claim: An LIHKG post published March 11, 2022 claims that Pfizer has submitted delisting application after being forced to reveal 1,291 side effects of its COVID-19 vaccine.
• Fact-checking:
  • Aries Kin-ming Wong, associate head of the department of economics of Hong Kong Baptist University, told HKBU Fact Check that the “delisting” security of Pfizer circulated online was in fact a debt security, which was matured March 7, 2022. The debt security was fully repaid March 7 and it is the reason why the security is delisted. The delist of a particular debt security is nothing to do with its equity/share/stock security. Simply speaking, the listing status of Pfizer’s equity/shares/stock remains unchanged.
  • As of April 19, 2022, Pfizer Inc (PFE) has remained listed, and its stocks have been traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
  • The “list of vaccine side effects,” purported in the claim, is in fact the “List of Adverse Events of Special Interest” of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Adverse events include all health problems related and not related to vaccination, as well as those without sufficient evidence to show that they are caused by the vaccine. Adverse events are not equal to side effects.
• Our ruling: We rate the claim as FALSE.

News Brief

A post was published March 11, 2022, on the discussion forum LIHKG. The post, written in traditional Chinese, translates as, “The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, producer of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, has suddenly submitted Form 25 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and made a delisting application. The official website of the SEC has officially released the news… Prior to this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released Pfizer vaccine data documents on March 1. The documents mentioned that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine had 1,291 side effects (adverse reactions).”

As of the issuance of this report, the post had received 52 likes, 288 dislikes and 168 comments.

Similar posts have been found circulating  here and here.

Fact-checking

 
1.Has Pfizer submitted a delisting application form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission?
 
A keyword search found the “Form 25” on Pfizer’s official website. The form, published March 7, 2022, is titled “Form 25: Notification of Removal from Listing and/or Registration Under Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.” The official website of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) also published the document on March 7, 2022.

The first page of this document states, “Description of class of securities: 0.250% Notes due 2022.” Besides, the rule provision relied upon to withdraw the class of securities from listing and registration is “17 CFR 240.12d2-2(a)(2).” Therefore, the notification is about the delisting of Pfizer’s 0.250% notes, which have been redeemed or repaid in full upon maturity or retirement. The second page of the document clearly states that the repayment or redemption date is March 7, 2022, the delisting date of the class of security is March 18, 2022, and its trading suspension is from March 7, 2022.

Aries Kin-ming Wong, associate head of the department of economics of Hong Kong Baptist University, told HKBU Fact Check, “the ‘delisted’ security of Pfizer is its debt security. In particular, it is its 0.25% Note which was matured on March 7, 2022. It means that the debt security was fully repaid on March 7 and it is the reason why the security is delisted.”

Wong added, “There can be different types of securities/financial instruments of the same company listed on an exchange for trading. Usually, the public is more aware of the listing of a company’s equity/shares/stocks. A shareholder entitles to a share of ownership and dividend of the company…Debt security is usually traded by the investors ‘over the counter’ which the trading is less standardized and subject to less stringent regulations. However, some company may also list their debt securities for trading to increase their attractiveness to some investment funds (some mutual funds and unit trusts are required to invest in listed securities only). The debt security of Pfizer in our case is listed on NYSE for trading and is delisted for trading as the debt was fully repaid. The delist of a particular debt security is nothing to do with its equity/share/stock security. Simply speaking, the listing status of Pfizer’s equity/shares/stocks remains.”

A similar claim has also been debunked by Taiwan FactCheck Center. Pfizer told Taiwan FactCheck Center, “The filing of Form 25 is done because the company’s notes have been repaid and removed from listing on the exchange market. It does not mean that Pfizer has terminated its legal personality, nor does it mean that Pfizer has been completely delisted from the stock exchange.”

The official website of the New York Stock Exchange shows that as of April 19, 2022, Pfizer Inc (PFE) was still listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Therefore, the Form 25 mentioned in the claim is about Pfizer’s application for delisting its 0.250% notes due 2022. It does not mean that the company has been removed from the stock exchange. Currently, Pfizer’s equity, shares and stocks are still listed.
 
 
2. “Pfizer has been forced to reveal the 1,291 side effects of its COVID vaccine.” “On March 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a set of Pfizer vaccine data documents, in which it is mentioned that the vaccine has 1,291 side effects (adverse reactions).” Are these claims true or false?
 
An article was appended to the LIHKG post. The article was published by the South African online news media The South African. The article ends with what it claims is a set of “Pfizer vaccine data documents” titled “Cumulative Analysis of Post-authorization Adverse Event Reports of PF-07302048(BNT162B2) Received through 28-Feb-2021)” (henceforth, the vaccine data documents).

A keyword search found that the set of documents was published Nov. 17, 2021 by a non-profit organization in the U.S. medical sector called Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT). The purported list of “1,291 vaccine side effects” is attached in the appendix, which is nine pages long. However, the actual name of the list is “Appendix 1. List of Adverse Events of Special Interest.” In fact, adverse events and side effects are two different concepts.

According to the definition provided on the official website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), any health problems that occur after vaccination are considered adverse events following immunization. Adverse events can be vaccine-related adverse reactions, also known as side effects, or coincidental events that occur after vaccination. CDC listed three types of adverse events that may occur after vaccination, including adverse reactions/side effects, unrelated health problems following vaccination, and health problems with an unknown cause. Adverse events include many health problems that are not related to vaccination or those with insufficient evidence to show that they are caused by the vaccine. Adverse events and side effects cannot be interchangeably used without in-depth studies evaluating causality.

In the second paragraph of Section 3.1.3 on page 16 of the vaccine data document, it is stated that the list of Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESIs) of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine takes into consideration the lists of AESIs from Brighton Collaboration, the ACCESS project (vACCine COVID-19 monitoring readinESS, which is funded by the WHO and the European Medicines Agency), as well as the CDC (preliminary list of AESI for VAERS surveillance). A fact check about the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has been published by HKBU Fact Check. HKBU Fact Check found in this fact check that anyone can report side effects via VAERS. The CDC also points out that VAERS has limitations and cannot determine whether the reported adverse events are caused by the vaccine based on the VAERS data alone.

The Methodology section on page 5 of the vaccine data documents also states that data from Pfizer’s safety database are included in the report, which contains cases of adverse events reported spontaneously to Pfizer, cases reported by the health authorities, cases published in medical literature, cases from Pfizer-sponsored marketing programs, non-interventional studies, and cases of serious adverse events reported from clinical studies, regardless of causality assessment.

To sum up, the claim “1,291 vaccine side effects mentioned in Pfizer vaccine data documents” is false. The so-called “list of side effects” is actually the “list of adverse events” of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which include many health problems that are not related to vaccination or those without sufficient evidence to show that they are caused by the vaccine. Adverse events are not equal to side effects. Furthermore, Pfizer’s equity, shares and stocks are still listed and have not been delisted from the stock exchange.