The Pfizer Clinical Trial in Argentina Was a Military Operation
And Augusto has the contracts to prove it
Last week the mainstream German news outlet Die Welt published an in-depth article (see here for English translation) that detailed shady shenanigans that took place at the Pfizer clinical trial site in Argentina, centering around trial volunteer Augusto Roux, who I wrote about last year:
(UPDATE: I forgot that his story and Bri Dressen’s were also detailed in this recently published paper in peer-review journal: “The coverage of medical injuries in company trial informed consent forms.” — Way to go David Healy!)
As a lawyer working in Argentina’s High Court, Augusto was the wrong guy to piss off. He has worked tirelessly to expose the fraud that took place at the Argentina trial site and even managed to convince Argentina’s parliament agree, in principle, to launch an investigation into the trials — although the investigation has not yet gotten off the ground.
One reason they may be hesitant to start the investigation is that the trial was a military operation. Or that’s what Augusto tells me. He sent a set of documents comprising the clinical trial contracts, which he characterizes as “a mutual cooperation agreement of a military nature, signed and authorized by the Argentine Ministry of Defense and ITRIALS SA, the company of Fernando Polack.”
The documents are in Spanish, which I don’t speak. Augusto said he was looking for a way to circulate the contract, and I volunteered to help. So I am posting it below for anyone interested in exploring it further. If you do — please post your observations in the comments here.
[UPDATE: One commenter (Carlé) wrote: “I read the contract, and clearly it is between Pfizer and the Militar Central Hospital Cosme Argerich in Buenos Aires. Simply: between Pfizer and the Argentine Militar.” Another commenter noted that it is between iTrials and the Military Hospital, and since iTrials was contracted to run the trial in Argentina, it is essentially a contract btwn Pfizer and the Argentine military.]
As you can see, the agreement was a sealed military secret until Augusto forced them to release it in August, 2022:
Here is the pdf, which has been OCR scanned (for what it’s worth):
UPDATE: In comments some people seem to be reading the contracts as simply between the hospital and the company running the Argentina trial, iTrials (owned by the PI who was also first author on the Dec 2020 paper in NEJM on the trials). Basically they seem to be saying that the documents amount to a big fat nothingburger, or certainly not indication of any kind of military operation. Maybe so, but then why the secrecy? Why was it so difficult for Augusto to have these documents unsealed. And why does the Joint Chief of Staff of the Argentine military need to sign?
