DISINFO: The West is preparing a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V
SUMMARY
The US and its allies will launch a coordinated campaign to discredit the Sputnik V vaccine. The US wants Pfizer to benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic.
RESPONSE
An unsubstantiated claim, promoted by pro-Kremlin media outlets and suggesting that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia's vaccination efforts.
While pro-Kremlin outlets pointed to an unnamed source from the Kremlin to promote the claim, no evidence is put forward about an alleged disinformation campaign against Sputnik V.
On the contrary, according to the findings of the Global Engagement Center, a research platform of the US State Department, pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets systematically engaged in discrediting the US-made Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in a bid to promote the Russian-developed vaccine instead on the global market. Among the disinformation outlets that have been actively attacking the US-made vaccines, was the Crimea-based News Front which is associated with Russia's Federal Security Service.
What is more, a number of EU countries are considering the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, while the European Medicine Agency (EMA) is currently conducting a rolling review the efficacy and safety of the vaccine under a rolling review. All this proves that there is no such coordinated campaign.
For more disinformation cases about the different vaccines, click here.