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DeSantis filed a 20-page petition with the Florida Supreme Court to assemble a grand jury to investigate crimes related to the use of COVID vaccines. The result was pretty much the opposite of what he wanted.
A statewide grand jury didn’t find evidence that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers broke federal or state laws when making and distributing the shots, according to a report published Tuesday.
The publication of the grand jury’s final report comes more than two years after Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the Supreme Court to assemble it to investigate wrongdoing related to the COVID-19 vaccines. At the time, DeSantis eyed his unsuccessful bid for the presidency and explained his petition by saying that misrepresenting the efficacy of a drug was against Florida law.
No Criminal Indictments
However, the grand jury refused to bring any criminal indictments, finishing its 144-page final report on Nov. 22. Christopher Sabella, the chief judge of Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, ordered the unsealing of the report on Tuesday.
“We did not find any statute that we believed would be an appropriate vehicle for a criminal indictment based on the facts we have laid out in this Final Report,” the jurors wrote.
Instead, the report criticizes the relationship between regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer and Moderna.
“Records and testimony we collected in our tenure showed that time and again, sponsors operated hand-in-glove with regulators to promote their products in the marketplace,” the report states. “Often, the claims of sponsors and federal regulators alike were based on less-than-ideal supporting evidence, but we must presume from their conduct that these regulators understood the quality of this supporting evidence and they were satisfied with it.”
DeSantis didn’t acknowledge the lack of evidence of criminal activity in his X post about the report, adding that the recommendations the grand jury made should be implemented.
“While we are still reading through the report and its recommendations, it details that, through deception and taking ‘advantage of scientific journal infrastructure’ to hide adverse events from the public, Big Pharma engaged in a ‘pattern of deceptive and obfuscatory behavior,’” DeSantis wrote.
This morning, the Twenty-Second Statewide Grand Jury released its final report. This Grand Jury was tasked with investigating vaccine manufacturers and their production process for vaccines following the COVID-19 pandemic.
While we are still reading through the report and its…
Grand Jury Recommends Changes to FDA, Florida Legislature
The report includes recommendations for both the federal government and the Florida Legislature. For example, the grand jury wants the FDA to reinstate a ban on direct-to-consumer advertising of therapeutics and to prevent people from going back and forth between working for regulatory agencies and the private sector.
“This Grand Jury finds itself in the awkward position of advocating for a series of changes to a group of private and public entities who did not ask for them and are unlikely to be particularly interested in adopting them,” the report states.
The FDA declined to comment.
The grand jury also accused Pfizer, Moderna, and other corporations of “running out the clock” when it came to providing evidence and testimony. The COVID-19 grand jury sat for 18 months after receiving a six-month extension.
Pfizer defended its COVID-19 vaccine in a statement to Florida Phoenix.
“Pfizer stands by the strength of the science behind its mRNA vaccines and the transparency with which we conducted our COVID-19 clinical trials and communicated their results,” a media relations representative wrote to the Phoenix. “Regulatory agencies across the world have authorized or approved the use of our COVID-19 vaccines. Those authorizations or approvals are based on robust and independent evaluation of the scientific data on quality, safety and efficacy.”
The members of the grand jury recommended changes to Florida law to allow a discovery period before members of future grand juries are sworn in. They also want the state to criminalize noncompliance with grand jury subpoenas.
Approximately 16.1% of Florida adults have gotten the latest COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data from Dec. 23. Seven days into the new year, the Florida Department of Health has reported 2,823 COVID-19 cases and two deaths.
Moderna and the governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to the Phoenix’s requests for comment.
Florida Phoenix
The Phoenix is a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers. We cover state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee.
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