This may sound like a conspiracy theory, but according to Western sources, Russia is responsible for part of the campaign against Western vaccines on social media. The goal – to market the Russian Sputnik vaccine, strengthen diplomatic ties, and act to undermine and dismantle the EU, in order to increase Russia’s influence on certain European countries.
This is not to say that all opponents of the vaccine are Russia’s emissaries. The anti-vaccine movement was not born as a Kremlin campaign, but according to Western sources, when opposing Pfizer or Astrazanka vaccines seek information to support their arguments, Russia is happy to provide them, whether true or inflated or completely wrong.
It did not start today. Bots registered in Russia have been embroiled in controversy over vaccines for years, when apparently in the past this was a way to generate traffic and attract factors, who still have no confidence in their rule in Western countries. Today the discussion about vaccines is not just the bait – it is the real thing. The Kremlin said in response to articles in the Western press that “this is nonsense.”
According to an article published about two weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal, based on a report released by the US State Department, “Russian intelligence agencies have launched a campaign to undermine confidence in Western vaccines.”
According to the report, four sites disseminating misinformation or attempting to raise unfounded suspicions about vaccines from the West have been identified as being owned or under the influence of the Russian government. The sites do combine pro-Russian, anti-American and anti-immune information. Like New Eastern Outlook, it now features headlines like “Vaccine Policy Reveals the Dark Side of Western Society” and “Biden Crossed a Red Line.” A site called Oriental Review raises questions about the possibility that Gates’ Trail has patented a vaccine chip implant. The same website describes Putin’s speech in Davos as “the founding speech of the period.”
The News Front website – which deals mainly with Eastern European politics – raises questions about what would happen if Western values entered Russia. According to the website, this will cause a wave of censorship in the name of political correctness.
According to the claim, the information from these and other sites is distributed on social networks by Russian activists and bots, and soon gets a life of its own, being distributed by vaccine opponents from the West, who do not always know the source of the information.
In January these sites wrote about the risk of developing facial paralysis due to the use of Pfizer and Modernena vaccines, and about a person who contracted corona despite being vaccinated. The articles presented correct information, but out of context and in an unbalanced way, without presenting the corona risks or vaccine efficacy.
“The Russians inflated phenomena”
In another article, Pfizer’s vaccine was dubbed “radical experimental technology,” noting that Bill Gates and senior U.S. government adviser to Corona, Dr. Anthony Fuchs, had been pushing and speeding up the product in experiments. In practice, the vaccine went through all the necessary steps (even if quickly) and Gates had no hand in the matter. In fact, the Russian Sputnik vaccine came into use before extensive experiments were performed on it. Another article states that the US is spreading laboratories around the world from which engineered diseases can erupt.
In addition, both Russian government media and the Russian government’s Twitter account have acted quite openly to raise suspicions about the price and safety of Pfizer’s vaccine. This is according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
A Kremlin spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that there was nothing really behind it: “The Americans are incorrectly characterizing the international debate on vaccines in a Russian malicious program, but the Russian secret services have nothing to do with any criticism of the vaccines.” “The Sputnik vaccine as a result of the efforts of the American intelligence services, we would go crazy because we see it every day and every hour in every Anglo-Saxon publication.” Indeed, Russia has its own vaccine, so what makes it stand out against vaccines from other countries?
Dr. Jeremy Levin, former CEO of Teva and now CEO of the biotechnology company Ovid and chairman of bio, the organization of American biotech companies, tells “Globes”: “In 2020, even before vaccines hit the market, we saw reports on websites Ukrainians affiliated with the Russian government, according to which five Ukrainians died after receiving Pfizer vaccines. To the best of our knowledge, until now no Ukrainians have received Pfizer vaccines. And not about the effectiveness of the vaccines on the other hand. “
Pfizer’s vaccine continues to be a sought-after vaccine despite the counter-campaign. Levin estimates that misinformation from Russia may also have been part of a recent drama surrounding the Astrazhanka vaccine. The EU has halted the vaccine for several days after reports that it causes dangerous blood clots. Levin estimates that Russian information channels have inflated reports of these phenomena. After clarification, it was decided that there was no clear link between the clots and the vaccine, and the vaccination operation continued. Now the Europeans have completely changed their attitude and even said that they would not allow an Asterzenka vaccine created within it to be taken out of Europe – they want these vaccines for themselves.
“Chaos, death and new mutations”
The tension between Europe and AstraZeneca is related to the fact that it is a British company. The British have greatly promoted the use of this vaccine, although according to an experiment, it is less effective than the American Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The post-Brexit UK is not obliged to share its vaccine doses with Europe, or wait for approval from the European Medicines Agency, and its vaccine campaign is progressing much faster than in France or Germany. Britain is now going out a long quarantine with a significant drop in morbidity, while in Germany and France there is an increase in morbidity and another closure is now planned, while the vaccination campaign is progressing sluggishly and there are not enough vaccine doses.
According to Levin, this is exactly the tension that Russia is looking to encourage, in order to deepen its influence on some European countries, and in the meantime also to make a buck in the sale of the vaccine “Sputnik”. “Some countries in Europe are already starting to say ‘let’s not be vaccinated with either Astrazenka or Pfizer but wait for Sputnik.’
“Italy, for example, very much wants Europe to use the Sputnik vaccine. There is a Sputnik factory on its soil. It’s the kind of thing that really creates a rift between countries in Europe.” The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has asked Italy not to approve the vaccine on its own, claiming it will be “Russian roulette”. In Russia they demanded an apology. Italy has promised not to start marketing the vaccine before the EMA approves it.
Levin points out that there is a good chance that Sputnik is a successful vaccine. “Russia started vaccinating Sputnik commercially before there was any real information about its effectiveness. In the meantime, they have released more information that the vaccine is 92% effective. The EMA has tools to assess whether the information is reliable. We want a good vaccine to come from everywhere, but we fear the campaign “Russia against Western vaccines will lead to distrust of all vaccines, and the corona will continue to burn out of control. Fueling a campaign against vaccines is like fueling Hezbollah. It is impossible to know where it ends or who it will harm in the end.”
We contacted the Russian Embassy to get a response on the matter, but by the time the article was published it had not been received.