The “PfizerPapers” or “Pfizer Leaks” are a recurring theme in conspiracy theories about the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid19. In a report by the BENEDMO Hub, Bellingcat, Textgain, the University of Leuven and Nieuwscheckers analyzed the content and distribution of these stories in Flanders and the Netherlands.
This article was originally published on benedmo.eu in Dutch on November 4, 2022. Organizations that contributed to this analysis: Bellingcat, Textgain, University of Leuven, Nieuwscheckers.
https://benedmo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BENEDMO-Analyse-Pfizerpapers2.pdf
When Pfizer/BioNTech applied for a license for the Covid-19 vaccine on November 20, 2020, the pharmaceutical company submitted a comprehensive dossier of clinical data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency that oversees the safety and evaluation of drugs and vaccines in the United States. After the vaccine received preliminary approval in December 2020, the FDA released clinical data from the vaccine trial. The vaccine received final approval in August 2021. In November 2021, the FDA released a report detailing the results of the first months of the vaccine's marketing authorization, including self-reported adverse events.
False claims about the ineffectiveness of vaccines or hidden side effects regularly appear on conspiracy websites and social media. The trigger is the publication of the 300,000-page files by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A court ruling has forced the FDA to release the files at an accelerated rate: about 50,000 pages per month. This regular publication of information encourages new – factually incorrect – claims about serious side effects, numerous miscarriages or concealed deaths.
pfizerpapers analysis
BENEDMO's report analyzes Dutch-language posts about the Pfizer Papers on conspiracy sites, on Twitter and through the work of fact-checkers. Based on a dataset of 35,000 tweets collected between November 11, 2020 and August 29, 2022, the report shows that the Pfizer Papers appear on Twitter in brief but impactful spikes that follow publications on conspiracy sites. The articles that go viral are no longer shared after a day or two.

Attention peaks: The blue line shows the number of tweets per day related to keywords related to the Pfizer Papers.
The yellow line shows the number of tweets sharing articles from conspiracy sites about the Pfizer Papers. The dashed lines mark the most popular posts. In terms of content, three recurring narrative themes can be identified in the contributions about the papers. The first narrative attempts to label the Comirnaty vaccine as ineffective: the vaccine does not work or only works to a limited extent. The second narrative revolves around serious side effects, such as heart problems, blood clots and miscarriages. The third narrative focuses on secrecy: the corporation would attempt to keep the documents secret for at least 75 years.
At first glance, it seems as if each new batch of the Pfizer Papers spawns new conspiracy theories. However, upon closer inspection, it turns out that the “news” continues to rely on older documents from 2020 and 2021. So the news value is only faked. Recycling old claims could explain why the release of new Pfizer papers since May 2022 generates fewer spikes in social media attention. Currently, analysis suggests that the influence of the papers as an inspiration for disinformation about Covid19 vaccines is decreasing.
In recent months, posts about the so-called Pfizerpapers have been spread on social media. Several incorrect claims regarding these documents have been refuted by Flemish and Dutch fact-checkers. These fact checkers have now taken a closer look and summarized the individual false information in a comprehensive report. The full report can be found here (in Dutch).
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

