Russian intelligence agencies have shared false and misleading information to undermine confidence in COFID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and other drugmakers, a report said Sunday.
Four online publications spreading disinformation about vaccines have been linked to Russian intelligence services, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The report, which names an unnamed U.S. official at the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, said the sites did not have a large audience, but that the false narratives could be posted by other international media.
The sites – identified as New Eastern Outlook, Oriental Review, News Front and Rebel Inside – highlight the risk of the vaccines on side effects, question their effectiveness and claim that the process of approving Pfizer’s vaccine was rushed, reports the newspaper.
“We can say that these stores are directly linked to Russian intelligence services,” the Global Engagement Center official told the newspaper. “They are all foreign-owned and are outside the United States. They vary greatly in their reach, their tone, their audience, but they are all part of the Russian propaganda and disinformation ecosystem. ”
In addition to the campaign to undermine Western vaccines, state media and the government’s Twitter accounts have raised concerns about the cost and safety of the Pfizer vaccine, the newspaper reported.
Experts said the attempt could be an attempt to promote the sale of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
A Kremlin spokesman denied the allegations.
“It’s nonsense. “Russian special services have nothing to do with any criticism of vaccines,” Dmitry Peskov told the Journal.
“If we treat every negative publication against the Sputnik V vaccine as a result of efforts by US special services, we will go crazy because we see it every day, every hour and in every Anglo-Saxon media.”