Did Pfizer scientists warn the public that weekly vaccinations would need to begin to provide protection against the Omicron variant? No, that's not true: This claim is in an article from a website that defines itself as a "financial satire site." A representative from Pfizer also told Lead Stories that there is no evidence that weekly vaccinations would be beneficial.
The story originated in an article published by The Stonk Market on December 1, 2021, titled "Pfizer Scientists Warn Weekly Vaccinations May Be Needed For Omicron Variant COVID-19 To Prevent Lockdown" (archived here). It opened:
Pfizer scientists released a shocking new statement saying that Pfizer is working on developing a weekly vaccination booster system to help prevent the spread of the new emerging COVID-19 mutation, Omicron.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Pfizer Scientists Warn Weekly Vaccinations May Be Needed For Omicron Variant COVID-19 To Prevent Lockdown - The Stonk Market
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: The Stonk Market screenshot taken on Fri Dec 10 14:15:38 2021 UTC)
At the bottom of The Stonk Market website is a disclaimer saying that this is a satirical website about finance:
TheStonkMarket.com is a financial satire site ... Mission: To provide daily humor and make stonks go up.
We emailed Pfizer for a comment on this claim. They responded on December 10, 2021, saying:
We have not made any statement and there is no evidence that we need weekly vaccinations.
A Google search of the key words "pfizer weekly vaccination for omicron variant" resulted in no reliable reports on weekly vaccinations.
According to Dictionary.com, "stonks" is Internet slang for the word "stock." The word is purposefully misspelled and is used to refer to money-losing stocks in a humorous way.
