Uthmeier alleges Pfizer misled Florida about its COVID vaccine’s safety

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit Thursday against Pfizer Inc., alleging unfair and deceptive marketing of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The suit, filed in state trial court in St. Lucie County, also names Albert Bourla, the company’s chairman and CEO.

It seeks monetary damages for each violation of Florida law plus an injunction against future violations.

“Pfizer’s conduct misled Florida consumers when they were making some of the most sensitive health decisions of their lives. Ultimately, Pfizer’s misconduct rests on the paternalistic assumption that Florida consumers could not be trusted with the truth about Pfizer’s products. That offensive assumption is anathema to the principles underlying the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (‘FDUTPA’),” it asserts.

Uthmeier denounced the company in a video posted on X.

In response, Pfizer issued a written statement.

“We are proud to have developed the COVID-19 vaccine in record time in the midst of a global pandemic and saved countless lives. The representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based, and the Company stands behind the safety and efficacy of its vaccine. Pfizer believes that the state’s allegations have no merit and will respond to the suit in due course.”

“Pfizer is deeply committed to the well-being of the patients it serves. Since its initial authorization by FDA in December 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to billions of people, demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death.”

Florida’s complaint recalls the scary time when Americans confronted a new virus that filled hospitals and impelled government leaders to close nonessential businesses, including in Florida initially.

Gov. Ron DeSantis later changed course, easing business restrictions and surrounding himself with COVID skeptics including Joseph Ladapo, whom the governor installed as Florida surgeon general.

“Florida citizens faced an unprecedented level of uncertainty” and “worried about how to protect their loved ones and themselves from a previously unknown virus” and resulting “once-in-a-generation economic shock,” the complaint reads. The company “bet big” its mRNA vaccine, it adds.

To overcome skepticism over the novel vaccine, the company undertook an intensive marketing campaign attesting to the vaccine’s safety, the document continues.

“Pfizer was not content merely to promote its own narrative. It also sought to quash any dissent that might impact consumer demand — like calling those who dared to question Pfizer’s public claims ‘criminals.’”

At the same time, the complaint says, Pfizer’s “record-breaking profits rested on deception and falsehoods. While Pfizer was insisting to consumers that the vaccine posed no material safety risks — and while it actively sought to discredit those who said otherwise — Pfizer was aware of data reflecting serious safety risks that it hid from the public.”

In January 2025, a Florida statewide grand jury found no evidence that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers broke federal or state laws when making and distributing the shots. That was more than two years after DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court to assemble it to investigate alleged wrongdoing related to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The report did criticize what it considered too-close relationships between regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer and Moderna.