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People or companies in a position of power put themselves ahead of others for personal gain even with the possibility of loss of life. Holding back information such as life-changing or lethal side effects to increase profits. I believe this goes against society's basic moral values (protecting human life).

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Pfizer is likely to make huge profits from its COVID-19 vaccine but the greatest long-term benefit to the company may well be the positive PR it has received as a result. That PR was much-needed: before COVID-19, Pfizer had a toxic reputation even compared to other pharma companies. In the latest part of our 'Vaccine Capitalism' series, we remember why, with six of its biggest scandals. For a longer list read reports from US organisations Corp-Research, Good Jobs First and Drugwatch.

You can read the rest of our Vaccine Capitalism series, including analysis of how much money Pfizer may make from its vaccine, here.

1986: Pfizer had to withdraw an artificial heart valve from the market after defects led to it being implicated in over 300 deaths. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew its approval for the product in 1986 and Pfizer agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation after multiple lawsuits were brought against it.

2003: Pfizer has long been condemned for profiteering from AIDS drugs. In 2003 for example, it walked away from a licencing deal for its Rescriptor drug that would have made it cheaper for poorer countries.

2011: Pfizer was forced to pay compensation to families of children killed in the controversial Trovan drug trial. During the worst meningitis epidemic seen in Africa, in 1996, Pfizer ran a trial in Nigeria their new drug Trovan. Five of the 100 children who took Trovan died and it caused liver damage, while it caused lifelong disabilities in those who survived. But another group of 100 children were given the conventional "gold standard" meningitis antibiotic as a "control" group for comparison. Six of them also tragically died because, the families said, Pfizer had given them less than the recommended level of the conventional antibiotic in order to make Trovan look more effective.

2012: Pfizer had to pay around $1billion to settle lawsuits claiming its Prempro drug caused breast cancer. Prempro was used in hormone replacement therapy, usually for women going through the menopause. The settlements came after six years of trials and hardship for the women affected.

2013: Pfizer paid out $273 million to settle over 2,000 cases in the US that accused its smoking treatment drug Chantix of provoking suicidal and homicidal thoughts, self harm and severe psychological disorders. Pfizer was also accused of improperly excluding patients with a history of depression or other mental disturbances from trials for the drug. Later, in 2017, a coroner in Australia ruled that the drug had contributed to a man's suicide. The man's mother campaigned to change the label on the drug.

2020: Pfizer reached an agreement with thousands of customers of its depo-testosterone drug in 2018 after they sued it for increasing the likelihood of numerous issues, including heart attacks.

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Pfizer: six scandals to remember - Corporate Watch

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Pfizer is likely to make huge profits from its COVID-19 vaccine but the greatest long-term benefit to the company may well be the positive PR it has received as a result. That PR was much-needed: before COVID-19, Pfizer had a toxic reputation even compared to other pharma companies.

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Serial killing in general goes against the social norm, but even more so when rape or children are involved.

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Clifford Olson Jr. : The Beast of British Columbia

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Going against the majority/narrative - Deviance 

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Going against the majority/narrative - Deviance 

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Back in 2021 people were lining up to get the Covid-19 vaccine and those who refused it were considered deviant. Now those who are still taking them may be considered as deviant because the growing majority is choosing to no longer take them.

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NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - With most Americans delaying or skipping new COVID-19 booster shots, analysts and investors are now predicting far fewer will be given each year, pushing the number of shots well below annual flu vaccinations.

With fewer shots needed, vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc , partner BioNTech SE , rival Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) could have to hike prices as much as three times current levels if they hope to meet Wall Street revenue forecasts for the shots for 2023 and beyond, several analysts said.

Last year, many on Wall Street were estimating the number of COVID-19 shots would be in line with the annual flu vaccine, which is the vaccine market leader with more than 160 million shots per year in the United States and 600 million shots globally.

Now the slowing pace of the early COVID revaccination campaigns - particularly in the key U.S. market - is changing that view. A recent poll by Kaiser Family Foundation found that two-thirds of American adults do not plan on getting a COVID vaccine soon. Analysts are expecting the U.S. market to be as low as one-third the size of the flu.

"The fact that you have people saying the pandemic is over doesn't motivate people to get vaccinated," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology for New York hospital system Northwell Health.

He added that instances of COVID infections in those who have been vaccinated has left many to question the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Healthcare investor Bijan Salehizadeh with Navimed Capital, previously thought demand would likely mirror that of the flu, but now believes it will be much smaller without significant evidence that updated shots are better.

"The average person is not going to jump to get it" without signs of improved efficacy, he said.

FALLING NUMBERS

Over the first six weeks of the roll out, around 14.8 million people have received the updated COVID-19 booster shots which target the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron strain. In the first six weeks of the 2021 vaccination campaign, over 22 million people received their third shot even though only older and immunocompromised people were eligible at that point.

Uptake of the boosters this year in the European Union did not spike as hoped after new, updated shots that target Omicron were released, staying in a range of 1 million to 1.4 million doses a week.

Wall Street analysts and investors agreed vaccine sales could improve if the companies provide proof new boosters protect people from mild illness; if they develop pan-coronavirus vaccines; or if the shots are combined as a single shot with the flu vaccine. A new wave of infections could also spur demand.

For 2023, analysts on average estimate Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax could generate sales of $16.3 billion, $7.9 billion and $2.8 billion from their COVID-19 vaccines, respectively, according to Refinitiv data.

Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna declined to discuss their outlook for COVID related sales.

Novavax Chief Commercial Officer John Trizzino said that although vaccine fatigue and the belief the pandemic is over are currently tamping down demand, the drugmaker expects the COVID market will eventually be at least as big as flu. He said increased infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths will drive people to get boosters.

"Unfortunately, the virus does that work for us," Trizzino said.

Moderna has also suggested several times that it believes flu is a good comparison both in the United States and globally.

The companies could make up for some of the weaker demand with price increases. Moderna has said that it could aim to charge as much as $100 a dose for shots that it originally priced at around $16.50.

SVB Leerink analyst Daina Graybosch is skeptical the companies will be able to raise prices that high.

But Jefferies' Michael Yee said it is plausible private health insurers and U.S. government health plans would spend up to three times more than the current price of around $30 to prevent the significant costs of hospitalizations or long COVID. That would mean annual revenue of $3 billion to $5 billion over the long-term for a company like Moderna, he added.

Investors have already started to sour on the promise of the COVID vaccine market, particularly for Moderna, BioNTech and Novavax, three young companies that rely on the shots to generate virtually all of their profits. Shares in all three companies have fallen by at least two-thirds over the last year. Pfizer, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has dropped around a third.

Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Caroline Humer and Chris Sanders

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Analysis: Falling demand for COVID boosters puts price hikes on the table

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NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - With most Americans delaying or skipping new COVID-19 booster shots, analysts and investors are now predicting far fewer will be given each year, pushing the number of shots well below annual flu vaccinations.

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Religions that go against the normal of society are seen as deviant although; before 500 AD paganism was the societal norm and Christianity was the uncommon religion.

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While psychedelic mushrooms have been used for hundreds of years, only over the last hundred did they become illegal and those using them were looked at as deviants. Recently some psychedelics have been reconsidered for medical purposes such as PTSD which may take them out of the category of deviant behavior once again.

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While it has been referenced throughout history, notably in World War I, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as we know it today was first described as a distinct diagnosis after World War II among individuals who had survived Nazi concentration camps. The patients came home experiencing anxiety, depression and nightmares. They were frequently startled. In a paper synthesizing some of these early observations in 1963, psychiatrist Paul Chodoff wrote, "Perhaps the most nearly universal and most characteristic symptom was an obsessive rumination state in which the patient was more or less constantly preoccupied with recollections of, and ruminations about, his experiences during persecution, and about family who had died or been killed." Psychiatrists tested a variety of treatments from drugs to exposure therapy for what Chodoff referred to as "concentration camp syndrome."

More than 70 years after the initial observations, patients diagnosed with PTSD today still have few treatment options; most likely they will be prescribed a combination of therapy and antidepressant drugs. For some patients, these treatments make a positive difference in their quality of life, but many others continue for years without relief from nightmares, flashbacks, severe guilt and anxiety that can come with the condition. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about 6 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with PTSD at some point in their lives, whether they served in the military or not. While PTSD is often associated with traumas from war, it can also refer to symptoms after other traumatic experiences such as being involved in a serious accident, witnessing death or injury or being a victim of sexual assault.

Patients and scientists have longed for more options. "How many drugs are registered [in the U.S. and Europe] for PTSD?" asks Eric Vermetten, a psychiatrist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and a military veteran himself. "The answer is two. And when were they registered? 21 years ago. That's 21 years, we haven't had any new drugs registered for PTSD."

But maybe the path forward is one that was abandoned decades ago.In the 1960s,psychiatrist Jan Bastiaans, also at the University of Leiden, treated concentration camp syndrome with the psychedelic drugs LSD and psilocybin (an active ingredient in magic mushrooms) because he thought that in their minds, these patients were still in the camps. He believed "the LSD or psilocybin opened them up to the extent that they can liberate themselves," explains Vermetten. Other psychiatrists and regulators believed the therapy was too dangerous, even if it did have therapeutic potential. Despite the criticisms, Bastiaans continued treating patients with the drugs until his retirement in 1985, but by that time, he was nearly alone in his opinion of their therapeutic value.

Outside of the Netherlands, resistance was even stronger. In 1968, theUnited States outlawed LSD possession, categorizing the hallucinogen as a Schedule 1 drug.Two years later, it prohibited possession of psilocybin. MDMA (also known as ecstasy or Molly) lasted a bit longer, having been synthesized as a potential therapeutic in 1912. In the 1970s, some psychiatrists had started studying it as a potential therapy again, but it was simultaneously being used as a party drug and was banned by the U.S. in 1985.

Now, the drugs are gaining acceptance again as patients and doctors have expressed frustration with current treatment options.

Over the past few years, studies have suggested that just a few doses psilocybin or MDMA combined with therapy may help patients with PTSD or other mental illnesses. The results have been promising enough that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated both treatments as breakthrough therapies-a priority status given to promising drugs designed for an unmet need. The company developing the drug receives ongoing support from the FDA throughout the clinical trial process and priority review when the data is available. MDMA has received breakthrough status for treating PTSD while psilocybin has received the designation for treating treatment resistant depression.

"When I started [researching psilocybin] the idea that you could give a single dose of a drug and people would feel better almost immediately, and then feel better for months on end. I wouldn't have thought that was possible," says Joshua Woolley, a psychiatrist at the University of California San Francisco who studies psilocybin. "But now it's exploding...there's a lot of momentum."

How It's Thought to Work

The common category of antidepressants often used to treat PTSD now are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs work by increasing the amount of serotonin available to bind to serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate your mood. When more serotonin binds to specialized receptors, it may help patients feel more stable and content.

Psilocybin also acts on serotonin receptors, but scientists say the drug's impact reaches far beyond serotonin. They believe that the drug actually alters the way neurons connect to one another. "We're talking about a different mechanism of action that these drugs have compared to the old serotonergic compounds," says Vermetten "The mechanism action doesn't rely on one molecule."

Many patients prescribed antidepressants experience a range of side effects from upset stomach to insomnia. One of the reasons that psychedelic therapies are so appealing is that they're thought to work with only a few doses-limiting the risk of side effects.

Woolley explains that the psychedelic drugs seem to induce a state of plasticity that can make it easier for people to rewire neuronal circuits and learn new things, like they did when they were kids, for example. That provides the opportunity for therapy to be especially effective. Patients are more likely to embrace new connections and ways of thinking during their treatment.

Additionally, Rakesh Jetly, chief medical officer of Mydecine, a company developing psychedelic medicines, and a veteran of the Canadian army, says, brain imaging studies have shown that the drugs can induce changes in a network of cells that normally helps us understand who we are and where we are in time and space, called the default mode network. The disruption of this circuit may be behind the symptoms of many PTSD patients who experienced trauma in war. When an individual feels scared, this is the part of the brain that tells them, "Hey, man, you're okay. You're not [at war] in Rwanda anymore. You're not [fighting] in Afghanistan," explains Jetly. However, if the default mode network isn't working properly, the person may have difficulty recognizing that they're no longer in danger.

What the Experience is Like

Despite experimenting with different doses and treatment plans, most psychedelic treatment programs operate similarly. Prior to receiving any doses, a patient will meet with one or two therapists or guides-not necessarily doctors or psychiatrists-trained to help them through the experience. These experts will explain how the treatment sessions will work and take time to discuss the individual's struggles and goals prior to treatment.

Psychedelics usually take 20 to 40 minutes to kick in, then the medicine lasts around six hours. During that time some patients listen to music or talk to the therapists. They may feel introspective and relaxed. They also might hallucinate. Some patients may experience a "bad trip" or frightening hallucinations. Therapists are trained to help patients manage any fear or paranoia that arises. A treatment regimen may include one or several days of dosing, but it doesn't end there. "What's really unusual about these treatments in particular is that it's not just giving people the drug," says Woolley. "Millions and millions of people use psilocybin or magic mushrooms and all those people don't get better."

"And so what most people think is that well, that probably means that it's something about how it's given." Woolley explains that setting matters. Patients mentally prepare for the experience and go through it in a calm and familiar environment, with therapists they trust, rather than surrounded by concert-goers they haven't previously met, for example.

That practice is different from the treatment most patients are likely to be familiar with-cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-a type of therapy designed to help people identify and change negative thought and behavior patterns. "Anybody trained to be a therapist from like 1980 on has been taught to do this very directive psychotherapy, a CBT approach. 'We will talk about this. We're going to learn this skill. How did it go? When you go home, we want you to do this homework,'" says Jetly. But some scientists think that approach doesn't make the most sense with psychedelic treatments. Jetly believes the therapy should be directed more by the patient than the therapist, leaving the individual free to make associations between different experiences they may not have previously recognized.

In addition to a variety of doses and formulations, different trials are testing different therapeutic approaches. For example, the therapist's main goal could just be to guide the experience and keep the patients safe since patients could experience psychoses or behave erratically. Jetly believes therapists should help guide patients as they discuss whatever comes to mind, but not insist on focusing on specific goals like they might during CBT. "There's no right and wrong, but you're hoping that with the medicine, and after the experience, that they'll be able to bring up stuff that was otherwise painful and maybe make some connections." That could help them better understand themselves and make sense of their experiences. The most important part, says Vermetten, is that therapy continues after the psychedelic treatment. "The drug is the catalyst. The therapy is not [done] when you're done with the two sessions of psilocybin," he says. At first, they'll process what they felt during the treatments, but Vermetten says many patients will continue to see their therapists to discuss both the experiences during the treatment and any continuing effects from their trauma.

Still, Woolley says, determining the best type of therapy and who is most qualified to provide it is an important challenge in the field. While the drugs aren't considered addictive and most known side effects wear off within hours, being under their influence can make people especially vulnerable. "How is this going to be regulated?" he asks. "If you give a drug that may enhance suggestibility, it's a pretty profound power that could be used for nefarious purposes or inadvertently used for nefarious purposes." A therapist might be able to convince someone to do something they wouldn't otherwise do. For example, a STAT investigation suggests that one therapist exploited an elderly Holocaust survivor to the tune of $4,000,000 as he underwent psychedelic treatment. The therapist, with whom he was romantically involved, may also have offered to help him end his life after he expressed suicidal thoughts, according to the article.

Both psilocybin and MDMA remain illegal in the U.S. at the federal level, though several cities have moved to decriminalize psilocybin and Oregon has taken to building its own set of regulations around the drug's use. Over 200 clinical trials are registered on clinicaltrials.gov to test the effects of psilocybin or MDMA on conditions like PTSD, major depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder, but experts emphasize that it'll still take time before the medicines are widely available. "We want the FDA to recognize these as safe and effective treatments," says Jetly. "So we're going to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of these treatments."

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Why Psychedelic Drugs May Become a Key Treatment for PTSD and Depression

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While it has been referenced throughout history, notably in World War I, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as we know it today was first described as a distinct diagnosis after World War II among individuals who had survived Nazi concentration camps. The patients came home experiencing anxiety, depression and nightmares.