DISINFO: The campaign to discredit and denigrate the Sputnik V vaccine is funded by foreign states
SUMMARY
The first warnings about a fake attack on vaccination in Russia appeared almost a year ago, on 11 December 2020. The statement said: "They will try to discredit and denigrate the Sputnik V vaccine not only at the international level but also within Russia itself. This campaign is funded by foreign states and is targeted at the population of the Russian Federation." A year has passed, and absolutely everything has come true.
RESPONSE
An unfounded claim, about the EU, vaccines and coronavirus pandemic. This claim is not supported by any facts.
Available data shows that the Russians' scepticism toward vaccination against Covid-19 is homegrown. According to the Levada Centre, Russia's top independent pollster, vaccine hesitancy within the country is largely linked to the public's mistrust of the government and its handling of the pandemic. Also, the slow roll-out of the vaccine campaign in Russia is linked to insufficient production facilities. More about the reasons for the low vaccination rate in Russia read here.
The pro-Kremlin media falsely accuse the EU and its regulatory bodies' for having a bias against the Russian vaccine. The EMA and EU leaders have publicly stated they will welcome Sputnik V if it meets the applied standards for vaccines. In fact, problems with inconsistent, problematic or missing data and lack of transparency have been reported regarding Sputnik V.
The WHO affirmed on 13 October 2021 that the approval for the use of Sputnik V was still on hold pending some missing data and legal procedures, including regd. new inspections to manufacturing sites in Russia. On 20 October 2021, WHO said it has restarted the assessment process for the Russian vaccine and that it is awaiting the “completion of the rolling submission.”
There is abundant evidence, that pro-Kremlin disinformation has sought to amplify anti-vaccination messages in the West, question the efficacy of Western vaccines, and blame Western institutions for the low public interest so far in the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine, both at home and abroad. See here for our six-part reports on this issue.