DISINFO: AstraZeneca is more dangerous than Novichok
SUMMARY
AstraZeneca is much more dangerous than Novichok. The Novichok didn't kill anyone at all. Fantastic substance. Well, they say that there is one person in Britain who suffered. But there is no court decision.
RESPONSE
Hahaganda and recurrent disinformation narrative on the nerve agent Novichok. The disinformation message is also part of a campaign aiming to discredit Western vaccines.
“Novichok” is a name that was given to a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s in a covert programme codenamed Foliant that was revealed by defectors. Comparing a military-grade chemical nerve agent to AstraZeneca creates a wrong impression that this vaccine against COVID-19 was designed to cause deaths. For an overview of the pro-Kremlin disinformation regarding Covid-19 vaccines see also here.
Novichok was used by Russian GRU and FSB agents to poison former Russian spy Sergey Skripal in the UK, prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in Russia, and arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in Bulgaria. Navalny fell into a coma for several weeks, Gebrev also almost died but survived the poisoning.
The person referred to in the disinformation claim is a British woman who died as a result of exposure to the nerve agent Novichok. In March 2021, the pre-inquest review took place in London and it was announced that the role the Russian state played in this death will be investigated. Previously, in 1995 a Russian banking magnate and his secretary died from organ failure after being poisoned with Novichok.