I asked to see Ursula von der Leyen’s texts to Pfizer’s boss and she went to court to stop me. Why the secrecy? | Alexander Fanta
Billions in EU Covid funding have gone unaccounted for. By hiding its business behind personal messaging, Brussels is dodging public scrutiny
For weeks during the height of the Covid pandemic in early 2021, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, personally exchanged calls and texts with Albert Bourla, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Von der Leyen was seeking to secure billions of doses of vaccine.
At the time, the virus was rampant, people were dying and the EU was desperate to catch up with the UK and Israel,which had moved more quickly to procure vaccines. Supplies from Pfizer and AstraZeneca were running low as a result of production issues.
Alexander Fanta is a journalist at the investigative news outlet Follow the Money
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