DISINFO: Sputnik V is a target of a corporate Cold War
SUMMARY
Political, economic and even geopolitical issues play an important role in the “vaccine race” concerning COVID-19. The West and more specifically NATO governments and their satellites seem to be doing their best to exclude Sputnik V reaching Western markets and they are preventing health organisations such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to evaluate the Russian vaccine, although EMA has already started contacts with the Russian institution that produced Sputnik V.
RESPONSE
The article is part of a pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign on the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, launched after its announcement was met with scepticism and criticism, even by Russian specialists in the country.
However, evidence exists that it was Russia which has at all times perceived the development of a coronavirus vaccine mainly in terms of geopolitical and economic gain.
Additionally, reservations and criticism of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine are caused by the fact that Russia didn’t complete large trials to test the vaccine’s safety and efficacy before releasing it. Rolling out an inadequately vetted vaccine could endanger people who receive it.
Also, it was the Gamaleya Institute which approached the European Commission and not other way round as far as Sputnik V is concerned.
Other disinformation reports following the same context said that the UK launched a smear campaign against it; that the US and the EU face multiple deaths out of fear to admit Russia’s success against coronavirus; that the WHO confirmed that Sputnik V was on Phase 3 of clinical testing already in August 2020; that the WHO and Microsoft sabotaged the Russian vaccine; that Europe is turning to Russia due to its desperate need for a vaccine; or that the West criticises the Sputnik V because it can’t accept Russia’s primacy and because its pharmaceutical companies will lose billions of dollars.
See also previous case on the EMA.