A congressional report has uncovered how the Biden-Harris administration spent $900 million of taxpayer money to push the COVID narrative and keep Americans frightened, locked down, and compliant.
“The HHS taxpayer-funded campaign used emotionally manipulative ads to make clear that getting vaccinated was the only way to see friends, hang out, go on dates, have parties, vacation, and have sleepovers. In the summer of 2024, all HHS campaign materials available on YouTube were made private and are no longer accessible to the public.”
The report was released by the House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee found that taxpayer money was used on ads that overstated vaccine effectiveness, exaggerated the risks of COVID-19 to children, and relied on flawed CDC guidance. The campaign promoted claims, contradicting FDA authorizations, that vaccination would prevent transmission and allow life to return to normal. And these false claims allowed private companies to make hundreds of billions.
Committee leaders argued the effort not only misled Americans but also harmed education and the economy by reinforcing lockdown policies and contributed to declining confidence in other vaccines. They also revealed that part of the funding went to Big Tech companies to track and monitor Americans, raising data privacy concerns.
The report concluded that the “Stop the Spread” campaign eroded trust in government. Republicans placed blame on the administration for politicized messaging and for silencing dissenting scientific voices.
The $900 million expenditure represents a substantial misuse of taxpayer funds for what appears to be political messaging rather than legitimate public health communication. Even under the best circumstances, government intervention distorts economic markets. In this case, the Biden administration also distorted the information market, as centralized messaging campaigns crowded out opposing voices and alternative solutions.
The funding of Big Tech companies for surveillance activities exemplifies crony capitalism. Taxpayer money was used to enrich large corporations while simultaneously expanding government monitoring capabilities. This kind of government-business collusion undermines free speech and hinders both economic and scientific development by silencing dissenting voices.
Social media platforms censored doctors, nurses, and anecdotal evidence that challenged official measures. At the same time, they promoted voices supporting the administration’s line and selectively allowed anecdotal evidence only if it reinforced official policy. During COVID, there was a disturbing slide into elitism: the idea that only “experts” should be allowed to speak. Yet if those experts opposed the measures, no matter their credentials, they were dismissed as not “expert enough.”
There was not a single peer-reviewed scientific paper supporting school closures, yet anyone who questioned them was accused of “denying the science.” The silencing of dissenting scientific voices violates core conservative principles of free speech and open inquiry. Science advances through debate and questioning, not through centralized messaging campaigns that shut down legitimate scientific discussion.
The most powerful advertising for the vaccines came from government messaging, funded by taxpayers, telling us that “vaccines prevent transmission” and that if everyone complied, we could all “return to normal.” The government claimed vaccination was voluntary, yet repeatedly blamed the unvaccinated for the nation’s inability to return to normal. In reality, all it had to do was officially end the emergency and allow life to resume. Instead, citizens were encouraged to pressure or even inform on their neighbors who refused to comply.
By reinforcing lockdown policies through misleading messaging, the campaign caused significant economic damage. School closures and business restrictions imposed massive costs on society, particularly harming small businesses and working families. Meanwhile, certain businesses were allowed to remain open and thrive, with the government deciding which ones were “essential” and which were not.
The emergency powers framework further entrenched this imbalance. EUAs could be renewed indefinitely without requiring full approval data, allowing companies to sell products without meeting normal safety standards while being shielded from competition. Messaging about “free” vaccines was equally misleading, taxpayers were footing the bill through massive government purchases, though this fact was obscured from public understanding.
Ultimately, Biden’s $900 million PR campaign paid off handsomely for the pharmaceutical industry. The U.S. government invested at least $31.9 billion in mRNA vaccine research and procurement between 1985 and 2022, with another $29.2 billion spent by BARDA and the Department of Defense on advance purchase commitments for 2 billion doses. The federal government bought 1.2 billion doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines alone at a cost of $25.3 billion. In return, Moderna and Pfizer generated over $100 billion in global vaccine revenues, while the four major producers, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinovac, collectively made $90 billion in profits in just 2021–2022.
