DISINFO: Pfizer clinical trials have yet to be finished... Why the rush?

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Pfizer clinical trials have yet to be finished... Why the rush?

SUMMARY

Today, one of these western companies, “Pfizer”, provided a vaccine against the Coronavirus, and many countries of the world cheered for it without considering the results of clinical tests that are not completed to this day.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative related to the coronavirus aiming discredit any “western” vaccine in order to promote Russian-made vaccines, a disinformation campaign launched after approval of the Sputnik V vaccine was met with scepticism and criticism, even by Russian specialists in the country.

On November 18th, Pfizer and BioNTech announced the conclusion of the phase 3 study of their COVID-19 vaccine “meeting all primary efficacy endpoints”. On December 8th, the FDA released its independent analysis of the clinical trials. They determined that the Comirnaty (name of the vaccine) has an efficacy rate of 95 per cent.

A growing number of other countries across the world have also given emergency authorization for Comirnaty, including Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kuwait, Mexico, Panama, Singapore, and the UK.

The European Union signed off on the vaccine on December 21. Meanwhile, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland gave the vaccine full approval.

On Dec. 31, the World Health Organization gave Comirnaty an Emergency Use Listing, which will speed up its authorization in many other countries.

The same disinformation campaign includes statements such as 6 people died because of the Pfizer vaccine; that "Russian progress in COVID-19 vaccine has become for the West an outrageous challenge"; that the WHO and Microsoft sabotaged the Russian vaccine, or that the WHO confirmed that the Sputnik V was on Phase 3 of clinical testing already in August 2020.

This same article contained another disinformation message claiming that people should not trust Moderna because it's a company no one has heard of.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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