It made many question the scientists working for these big pharma companies, where profit always comes first.
A lot of scientist don't work for those companies, or even worse they work for the competition. That's why constant review of scientific facts and finding a consensus is the way it works.
Scientists can also be like politicians, saying what they think people want to hear, without addressing the serious concerns people have; lying and moving goalposts does not help.
That's a media problem, not a scientific one. If there are 10000 scientists agreeing on something and one with the opposite opinion, you will see 2 scientists debating the issue. This pretends there is an actual debate going on and not just one nutjob saying bullshit for what ever reason (might be honest believe, might be money, doesn't matter...).
While the people (as in ‘we the people’) pay for the research/loss and the companies take the profits, while having full immunity.
That is true, even more so in the very commercialized US health idustry. Yet that's far less true for vaccines than for any other medicine. Or how much did you actually pay to get vaccinated? And how much did the government (which spends your tax money) pay for each dose? They surely did a phenomenally better job at negotiating costs there than what your insurance companies or you yourself are able to do...