A well put together post. It sounds like there needs to be a call for more stringent transparency from the ground up -- from the scientists all the way up to the various government(s). The enforcement and adherence to the National Research Act, in the U.S. and following the Nuremberg Code as it pertains to human testing should be more predominant as well. I've pointed this out before ( you should dig into some of the reports in the VAERS database - read some of them ) as they are predominantly useless. Yet, people still quote it as "the" number of adverse events.

I would agree, moving from a regulatory body to the industry you oversaw should itself be regulated, government(s) should require transparency form payments from pharmaceutical companies.

Sadly, you can see this behaviour in many industries, the nutrition industry, car manufacturing industry, food industry, petroleum industry, aviation industry... public demand to fix the systems that oversee our safety and well being should be made to pressure for transparency and accountability. On those points absolutely, no question, 100% agreement. The system in many industries is not always optimal.

But when it comes down to it... the fact of the matter, is that vaccines do work.