It is no secret that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been a major source of funding for the UK’s Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
With this money, the MHRA recently granted emergency authorization to vaccines developed by companies in which Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has financial interests.
The question here is whether or not there is a conflict of interest when it comes to the decisions made by the MHRA.
In 2002, the foundation acquired shares in Pfizer and increased their value by promoting their vaccines through media campaigns in September 2020.
During an interview on CNBC, Gates expressed his confidence in their vaccine despite lacking formal medical or scientific qualifications. Furthermore, shortly before Covid-19 began, they purchased $55 million worth of shares in BioNTech.
The MHRA decided to extend emergency authorization for Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccines for children between 12 and 15 years old based on clinical trial data that showed its safety and effectiveness with benefits outweighing any risks.
However, a small-scale study revealed a high rate of adverse reactions from these children leading some critics to believe that there could be a conflict of interest at play due to Bill Gate’s relationship with these companies.
According to reports from May 2021, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has currently granted £980,000 ($1.28M) and $3 million respectively for collaboration purposes within the agency since 2017.
This information raises further questions about whether or not there is an ethical issue at play with regards to decision making when it comes down to vaccine approvals from this organization.
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