These are some great questions! Although the the side effects and financial risks outweighed the profit, I believe the implementation of the vaccine mandate did indeed change the course from the initial financial risk assessment. Because of this, from an economical standpoint, companies may now be influenced to use new technology to produce vaccines that may be deemed a necessity by the government. These companies were willing to take the risk of unknown side effects for profit, even if it meant the company could possibly lose money. When a health crisis is presented to the world, we can expect that more vaccine mandates will be in our future given that the COVID vaccine mandate was able to close the profit/loss margin. 

The FDA had issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, and the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine given the pandemic level health crisis. Nevertheless, the FDA still performed their due diligence to ensure safety and efficacy. I believe it is incorrect to think that the vaccines were approved by the FDA and distributed by the affiliate companies without accounting for the side-effects just for a profit margin because there would be major legal implications (including financial and credibility loss) for the company if there were any major adverse effects on the population. According to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, upon review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, no reported deaths have been linked to COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, aside from a few symptoms, some of which are common for many vaccines, the FDA and these companies did not prioritize reward over potential risks - especially in the face of a global pandemic. Creating a vaccine for a virus is not something new and I would only hope that the speed of developing a vaccine would improve in the future. As for the final question of whether the vaccine mandates increased the course of profit for these companies - of course, given vaccinations directly correlates with units sold. 

I believe that vaccine production for companies can become a very profitable business as well as doing good for the world. When we look at it, the polio vaccine was able to eradicate Polio from the world and it only lives in labs and in controlled settings. Because of this immunity that is generated from the vaccine, and also the introduction of mRNA vaccine distribution and technology, I believe these companies will continue to keep the fight against various infections going. Now the newest venture I believe is the flu vaccine, as that is the most prevalent viral vaccine that is made, however is deemed very unsuccessful due to its efficacy rate and due to the high mutation factor in the virus. With the now newly renewed view of vaccines due to the pandemic and the high efficacy rate that it gives, I believe that the risks that have been minimized versus the profits that can be gained from making these vaccines would make vaccine production more profitable and be a main business selling point for companies that specialize in vaccine production. 

I still believe that for most part a company will only make vaccines if there is a profit to be made. Like mentioned above there are many facets of risk associated with a vaccine that has not been fully tested. I believe that the only reason the companies like J&J, Pfizer and Moderna made a huge push for the vaccine development was because they were offered an Emergency Use Authorization which removed a vast majority of the risk involved in the cost to benefit equation. In the case of a pandemic the mandates essentially helped boost the sale of the vaccine so yes the mandates helped in increasing profit.