The founder of Project Veritas is demanding answers from the FDA after one of his undercover reporters allegedly caught an organization executive on camera saying Covid boosters would become annual requirements and that the Biden administration has financial incentives for pushing the vaccine.
‘There are serious ethical issues,' James O'Keefe told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, blasting the federal organization as being borderline corrupt.
'When you have the government getting money from the people they are supposed to be regulating and you have an executive officer in that government saying he did not know he is being recorded, that influences how they approved products,' the political activist said.
The far-right activist group released a report earlier Wednesday that includes edited video snippets from at least two secretly-recorded conversations in January and February with Christopher Cole, the FDA's executive officer for its medical countermeasures initiative.
'Biden wants to inoculate as many people as possible,' Cole said during a February 3 conversation inside a restaurant, according to footage obtained by Veritas. 'I think it's going to be a gradual thing. Schools are going to mandate it.
'The vaccine, it wanes, your ability to fight it wanes so the three will bolster your system and then there will be an annual one just like the flu shot.'
The FDA has dismissed the report, saying Cole does not work in vaccine-related matters and that his views don't represent those of the agency.
O'Keefe claimed he made an appeal to Cole, asking him to expose the alleged corruption within the FDA, but was instead told the official 'misspoke.'
'I asked him to become a whistleblower. Obviously he's saying some very true things here,' the Project Veritas leader stated.
'He is saying he misspoke. And I said "which part did you misspeak about?" And he said: "Well, then I was speaking in private, I didn’t want my remarks publicized."'
O'Keefe added: 'Of course, that is the whole idea of journalism is to make public what powerful people want kept private.’
Cole's comments were made public as some experts - including Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel - say they believe the pandemic will soon end and that vaccines may no longer be necessary.
Project Veritas said he made the comments to a female 'undercover reporter' during what appeared to be a series of dinner dates. Cole later dismissed the coverage as a 'hack job.'
Project Veritas Founder James O'Keefe is demanding the FDA answers to allegations that its officials are motivated by the 'fountain of revenue' it receives from pharmaceutical companies. He told Sean Hannity: 'There are serious ethical issues'
Christopher Cole, the FDA's executive officer for its medical countermeasures initiative, was captured on camera discussing Covid vaccines, and his belief that the government would continue relying on them as a recurring source of income
Project Veritas said he made the comments to a female 'undercover reporter' during what appeared to be a series of dinner dates. Cole later dismissed the coverage as a 'hack job'
In late January, Cole was recorded saying: 'You're going to have to get an annual shot. It hasn't been formally announced yet because they don't want to rile everyone up.'
During his dinnertime conversation with an undercover Project Veritas worker earlier this month, Cole also dished on the government's financial reasoning for promoting Covid vaccines.
'The drug companies, the food companies, the vaccine companies, they pay us hundreds of millions of dollars a year to hire and keep the reviewers to approve their products,' he said.
'If they can get every person required [for] an annual vaccine, that is a recurring return of money.'
O'Keefe, speaking to Hannity Wednesday night, said what Cole detailed to the reporter 'are serious ethical issues.'
'I'm not sure it's literally corruption, but this new story - which I'm going to reiterate some of the quotes here - almost a billion dollars a year ago into the FDA's budget from the people we regulate. The drug companies, they pass hundreds of millions of dollars a year to approve their product,' the journalist said.
'He even said how hard it is for people to step up. He said he will be a marked man. He will be marked from getting other jobs because of their offices are not going to want to hire you.'
FDA executive Christopher Cole
The Project Veritas leader also alleged Cole 'rubber-stamped' the approval of of emergency use authorization of toddler Covid vaccines, saying the move was motivated by the 'fountain of revenue that goes into the FDA'.
'The video talks about the fountain of money, the fountain of revenue, that goes into the FDA. The money they get from these pharmaceutical companies makes it more likely to approve their products,' O'Keefe explained.
'When he says - and repeatedly says - he handles these emergency use authorizations on toddler vaccines, he says the FDA is not going to not approve the so-called toddler vaccine. Basically rubber-stamping it.'
He continued: 'He says that there's an emergency, so we're just going to sorta rubber-stamp these toddler vaccines because it’s under an emergency authorization. These are serious issues here and we want answers.’
The FDA did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
President Joe Biden and his administration have been outspoken advocates for getting vaccinated against a virus that has killed more than 925,000 Americans
Project Veritas was founded by James O'Keefe, who grilled Cole in a follow-up interview about the comments he made during the secretly-recorded dinner dates
In a follow-up interview with Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, Cole said his office was not involved in the approval of vaccines.
He described the outlet's reporting as a 'hack job'.
'You videotaped me talking with someone on a date - didn't tell me anything, didn't say it was being videotaped,' he said.
'You've taken a lot of it out of context.'
It's not the first time Project Veritas has been accused of using deceptive tactics and secret recordings in its coverage.
Last year, it was revealed that former Survivor contestant Anna Khait - a Russia-born professional poker player - starting going under the name Hope Higgins to report undercover for the organization.
One of those allegedly targeted by Khait is Democratic campaign worker Michael Kolenc, who introduced herself to him as Higgins in July 2018, he told Daily Beast.
Kolenc claimed that Khait drew him in under the guise of a potential romance before recording a video of him making critical statements about his former boss, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, which was then released by Project Veritas.
President Joe Biden's administration has aggressively touted the Covid vaccine as an effective way to prevent infection or serious illness from the virus, which has killed more than 925,000 Americans.
As of February 14, about 65 percent of the American population was fully vaccinated; another 77 per cent has received at least one dose. About 28 per cent of Americans have received booster shots, according to CDC data.
Moderna's chief executive Bancel told CNBC's Squawk Box Asia this week that he is confident the next strain of the virus after Omicron will not less virulent, and that the way the current variant is running out of steam is a promising sign.
'There's an 80% chance that as Omicron evolves or [Covid] virus evolves, we are going to see less and less virulent viruses,' he said.
'I think we got lucky as a world that Omicron was not very virulent, but still are we see thousands of people dying every day around the planet because of Omicron.'
Moderna produces the second most popular vaccine in America, having been administered 206 million times since it first became available in December 2020.
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