They can be sure the vaccine is safe without being sure they would win in court.
Liability is just a cost of doing business.
You ever had D&O insurance? Right now in blockchain businesses some get quoted 10+% for coverage, i.e. 100k+ for 1 mil in coverage. Many simply forego the insurance because it's too expensive, and assume the risk.
The product in question had too little upside to offset the liability, that's all.
You convince a jury that it is unsafe. Happens all the time. There are many reasons this is easier than it should be.
> The product in question had too little upside to offset the liability, that's all.
The vaccine had a ton of upside...for those receiving it. Like most vaccines, it's not a hugely profitable endeavor for the company producing it, so it wasn't worth all of the baloney being thrown around in court.
People do group buys for all sorts of nutraceticals, small molecules, and even some biologics.
Why not? People have pooled-in to try drugs that are in development and not generally available yet. I can recall numerous instances: pitolisant, rintalimod, hyper immune IG, etc
Some went well, some were disasters, it’s the same as any other clinical trial.