Swiss government accused of misleading public about vaccines

The Federal Office of Health last week published partially redacted contracts with Covid vaccine manufacturers Moderna and Novavax.

The group Action Alliance for a Free Switzerland (ABF Schweiz) has commissioned a legal analysis of the contracts. The findings were described as “shocking” by the group.

Although the purpose of the contracts was “supposedly to protect health against the Covid pandemic,” none of the contracts contained any obligations for the manufacturers to deliver an effective or safe product, the group said. The risk of liability lies solely with the state and taxpayers, it added.

MP and lawyer Rémy Wyssman of the Swiss People’s Party, who campaigned for the publication of the contracts, is calling for those responsible to be held accountable and for the responsibilities of senior officials and auditors in the administration to be tightened. He announced that he would present proposals with similar demands in the upcoming extraordinary session of parliament.

He will ask whether the government has violated the essential principles of public procurement law and whether it has wrongly concealed the essential content of these contracts from parliament.

He questions whether the government violated the interests of the Swiss people by paying taxpayers’ money for a total of over 1 billion Swiss francs for vaccines. It is also unclear whether taxpayers’ money was misused.

At the latest when the vaccines were purchased, the assumption of a life-threatening pandemic for the entire population was wrong, the campaign alliance claims. This is because 95% of those who died from Covid-19 were over 65 or had pre-existing diseases.

The government preferred to “mislead the population by falsely claiming safety, effectiveness and necessity – especially with regard to the experimental nature of the Covid vaccines – against better knowledge,” the coalition said.

Last week, the Swiss Ministry of Health published unedited contracts with the production companies. The ministry did not immediately issue a statement on the allegations.