I don't exclude the possibility that a few influential figures have been bought off (or blackmailed), but I think that's at most a relatively small part of the explanation. Take all the academics who've suddenly become Very Important since this whole thing started. I don't think they've been bought off by Pfizer. I think they're egomaniacs who consider themselves geniuses, and despise people like you and me. It must be quite awkward to be them right now. These awesomely awesome vaccines were supposed to be 95% effective at reducing infection. Turns out, they quickly become counterproductive in that particular regard (if the UK data is to be trusted), and all they're good for is reducing the chances of serious illness by making you (roughly) the equivalent of 15 years younger with respect to COVID, at least for a little while, and then you need a booster, indefinitely. That's much less impressive, isn't it? But they're still egomaniacs. So, they need to prove that they were right all along, and the way they're going to "prove" it is by demonizing and punishing those of us who didn't go along with the narrative.