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The EU has made dramatic accusations against Russia regarding its vaccine.
Vincent Kalut / Photonews via Getty Images
- The EU has accused the Russian media of spreading false news to sell its vaccine.
- Josep Borrell alleged that state-controlled media have mocked Western vaccine developers to question other vaccines.
- Russia’s Health Ministry has yet to respond to the allegations.
The top European Union diplomat said on Monday that Russian public media had spread false information about European and American Covid-19 vaccines in countries where he wants to sell his own coronavirus vaccine.
“Western vaccine developers are openly mocked in Russian state-controlled multilingual media, which in some cases has led to absurd claims that vaccines will turn people into monkeys,” Josep Borrell said in a blog post.
“Such narratives are apparently directed at countries where Russia wants to sell its own vaccine, Sputnik V,” Borrell added, noting that these movements threaten public health amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He did not give specific examples.
Moscow has repeatedly denied these allegations, alleging that Sputnik V is being targeted by a foreign-backed disinformation campaign.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Borrell’s statement. The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media and communications watchdog, also did not immediately respond.
When pharmacist AstraZeneca, which worked with Oxford University on its vaccine, halted a clinical trial in September because of an unexplained volunteer illness, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Sputnik V was more reliable. because it was based on an adenovirus found in humans, while the British candidate was a “monkey vaccine”.
Trials of the vaccine, which uses a bioengineered version of a harmless virus of the common cold found in chimpanzees to instruct human cells in antigen production, resumed in Britain days after receiving the green light from security agencies.
Russia sent its first batch of coronavirus vaccine to Argentina last week as part of a 10 million-dose deal. It has signed supply agreements with several other countries in Latin America and Asia. The Russian injection costs less than $ 20 per person for the two doses needed.
