Texas

Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough

Published

11 months ago

November 30, 2023

Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused drugmaker Pfizer of fear-mongering and lies about the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine, which the company insinuated would end the pandemic, according to a lawsuit Paxton announced Thursday.

“In a nutshell, Pfizer deceived the public,” reads the 54-page lawsuit, filed in a Lubbock state district court.

The lawsuit alleges Pfizer “engaged in false, deceptive, and misleading acts and practices by making unsupported claims regarding the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.”

Pfizer was the first drugmaker to get the federal government’s emergency approval for the vaccine in late 2020, less than a year after the first infection was detected in the U.S.

The company has since won full approval for the use of its vaccine from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Also, the pandemic has since been declared over.

But the lawsuit comes at a time when Texas conservatives are pushing bans on COVID-19 vaccine mandates and trumpeting other anti-vaccine positions that are espoused by their grassroots supporters in the months leading up to election season.

Paxton’s arguments, many of them familiar tropes among the anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial crowd, hinge on the fact that the pandemic did not end soon enough — even though Pfizer officials never promised an end date to the health threat.

The drugmaker, he argues, claimed its vaccine was 95% effective but did not manage to end the pandemic within a year after being introduced.

“Contrary to Pfizer’s public statements, however, the pandemic did not end; it got worse. More Americans died in 2021, with Pfizer’s vaccine available, than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic,” the lawsuit says. “This, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans received a COVID-19 vaccine, with most taking Pfizer’s.”

But like other portions of Paxton’s lawsuit, that’s a statement that is technically true, but easily manipulated, experts say. Other assertions made in the lawsuit filing, they argue, are completely unsubstantiated, such as one claiming that vaccinated people were more likely to die from COVID-19, which Texas health data disputes.

The COVID-19 pandemic ended three years after it started causing deaths in the U.S., just over two years after the vaccines were introduced. The virus has killed 1.2 million Americans since Spring 2020, although infections and deaths have dropped dramatically starting in early 2022 — which experts attribute to a weakening virus, herd immunity and the fact that about 75% of the U.S. population had at least one shot of the vaccine. There have been fewer than 300,000 American deaths from COVID-19 in the last year and a half.

On May 5, the World Health Organization declared an end to the global COVID-19 health emergency. The U.S. followed a few weeks later.

It’s true that the virus killed more people in 2021 — twice as many. But that’s a calendar-year measure of 12 months of full-on pandemic level infections, compared to less than nine months the year before, in which deaths were staying in the double digits in most states in the early weeks.

Of the 1.2 million Americans who have died from COVID since the first death was recorded in March 2020, more than half of them died within the first 12 months. By then, only a third of Americans had gotten the shot.

When the pandemic was declared over in May, about 70% of Americans were considered to be fully vaccinated — the point at which experts had been saying for years would signal the end of the crisis.

But while facts and science remain on the side of COVID-19 vaccine supporters, who include experts in some of the most influential medical organizations across the world, the lawsuit still has political ramifications, said Terri Burke, executive director of The Immunization Partnership in Houston.

“What this really does is it’s just another attempt to erode confidence in all vaccines,” Burke said.

Paxton argues in the lawsuit that death rates were higher in some areas among vaccinated people than among unvaccinated people, but that’s not true for the overall rate in Texas.

The state’s own Department of State Health Services COVID-19 death tracker shows that as of April, the COVID death rate for fully vaccinated Texans is 12 times lower than that of unvaccinated Texans.

“These arguments have been around for a long time, and there are fact checks” that prove them wrong, Burke said. “This lawsuit and the rhetoric behind it are not going to make us safer. … It’s performative politics, as usual.”

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Where can I watch the College Football Playoff rankings for Texas A&M football?

Published

6 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Press Room

Where can I watch the College Football Playoff rankings for Texas A&M football?

Texas A&M football may have lost on Saturday to South Carolina, but they’re still in the running for one of the 12 spots in the College Football Playoff.

The Aggies are one of five teams in the Southeastern Conference with one conference loss. LSU, Alabama, Georgia and Texas also have one loss, opening the teams to some very complex tiebreaking scenarios.

This Tuesday, the CFP selection committee will release its first edition of the weekly rankings and the first projection of the playoff. Texas A&M is currently ranked 10th in the AP Poll and 11th in the US LBM Coaches Poll, but their recent loss should send them a ways down the standings.

Texas A&M running back Le’Veon Moss suffered an injury to his right leg in the first quarter versus South Carolina, pushing Amari Daniels into the starting role. Texas A&M coach Mike Elko says that Marcel Reed is the “starter now” after the game versus South Carolina, but the redshirt freshman committed multiple turnovers against the Gamecocks.

Texas A&M still has to face New Mexico State, Auburn and Texas. Even with the upcoming projections, there are a lot of different ways this could all play out.

Here’s everything you need to know about the CFP rankings reveal:

How to watch College Football Playoff rankings show

The College Football Playoff rankings show will air on ESPN, with the broadcast starting at 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Fans can also stream the show on Fubo, which is offering a free trial.

College Football Playoff rankings release date

The first rankings will be announced on Nov. 5 A new rankings will be released every Tuesday through Dec. 5.

What time is CFP rankings?

The broadcast will start at 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

Texas A&M football CFP rankings projection

Coming into Week 10, ESPN’s CFP Playoff predictor had Texas A&M with a 47% chance to make the playoff, but it hasn’t updated with the recent loss. Those odds fall to less than 40% after the defeat, per pregame projections.

If the Aggies win out and make the SEC title game, ESPN has them as the third-seed with a first-round bye, facing either sixth-seed Georgia or 11th-seed Tennessee.

Losing the title game would give Texas A&M a 67% chance to make the playoff as the 12th-seed. They would face fifth-seed Notre Dame in the first round. If the Aggies lose to the Longhorns in their final game of the season, their odds drop to 13%.

How many teams in College Football Playoff 2024?

There will be 12 participating teams in the College Football Playoff bracket. The teams will consist of the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, and the next seven highest-ranked teams.

How does College Football Playoff format work?

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded where it was ranked or at No. 12 if it is outside the top 12 in the CFP rankings. Non-conference champions ranked in the top four will be seeded beginning at No. 5.

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Texas sees record early voting numbers as poll workers protect the integrity of the process

Published

13 hours ago

November 3, 2024

Press Room

Texas sees record early voting numbers as poll workers protect the integrity of the process

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Millions of Texans will head to the polls on Tuesday, but almost half of all registered voters in the Lone Star state have already cast their ballots.

After a much-criticized election in 2022, Harris County eliminated the election administrator position and returned the authority to the county clerk, Teneshia Hudspeth. She said they are well prepared for Tuesday’s vote.

“It is going to be interesting. It is an important time in our country,” poll worker Garfield Teixeira said.

Teixeria has served on the front lines in more ways than one.

First, she served in the army for 22 years, but now, she’s on the front lines of democracy.

“We’re like Santa’s helpers. We’re like elves,” Teixeira said.

To Teixeira, a polling center is one of Santa’s many workshops.

She’s been helping out in Brazoria County during early voting.

“Friday, we had a lot of first-time voters. We welcomed them, and we tell them we should have a bell. Like, when you buy a car, to ring, to acknowledge them,” Teixeira said.

So far, 8.9 million Texans have voted early, including in-person and mail-in ballots. That’s about 47% of the 18.6 million registered voters.

It is less than the vote percentage in 2020, about 57%, but due to the pandemic, we had an extra week of early voting.

“The turnout has been tremendous,” Teixeira said.

Scrutiny of the election process has grown more intense, increasing the pressure on poll workers to perform flawlessly.

“I always pull up my information and refresh myself because… from one election to another. That is a big span of time,” Shaikil Grisham, who worked as a poll worker before moving to Texas, said.

Election monitors are tools used by the Department of Justice to keep an eye on any violations.

On Friday, top Texas election officials informed the DOJ that election monitors are not allowed in Texas polling places.

The agency had originally announced plans to dispatch machines to eight Texas counties.

The Texas secretary of state will send monitors to Harris County. The County welcomes those monitors as it has in previous elections.

For updates on this story, follow Alex Bozarjian on Facebook, X and Instagram.

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How to Watch Purdue Basketball’s Season Opener vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Published

21 hours ago

November 3, 2024

Press Room

How to Watch Purdue Basketball’s Season Opener vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

It’s time to play basketball in West Lafayette. Monday night, Purdue will begin the 2024-25 regular season, opening against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Boilermakers played two exhibition games to work off the rust prior to Monday’s season opener. But now, everything counts in the win-loss column, as Matt Painter’s team hopes to win a third straight Big Ten title and make another deep NCAA Tournament run.

Here’s how you can watch and listen to Monday night’s game.

BIG TEN BASKETBALL POWER RANKINGS: Can Purdue win a third straight Big Ten title? How will the four new teams fit in? Is Indiana back? A look at the first 2024-25 basketball power rankings. CLICK HERE

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