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According to foreign media VICE,The UK ordered 40 million doses of the new crown vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech by next week. By then, the country will become the first country in the world to provide this drug for general use.Around 800,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in the next few days; there will be 10 million doses of the vaccine soon after; at least 50 hospitals across the UK are preparing for the tiered list.
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Countries around the world are looking forward to it, because they are awaiting approval of this vaccine by their own regulatory authorities, which is said to provide up to 95% protection against the Sars-CoV2 virus. However, for some countries, this process can take several months.
However, in some corners of the Internet the “Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine” has been sold. VICE World News found several sellers on the dark web. It appears they are selling a dose of “Pfizer / BioNTech Vaccine” to customers around the world at a price of up to $ 1300.
“The COVID-19 vaccine has been developed by Pfizer and BioNTech,” reads the description of one of the products. “We can deliver to any country.”
At least two providers interviewed by VICE World News on Wickr claimed to be pharmacists and insisted that they obtained the vaccine through the government and have sold it to various customers. One of them claimed to have a stock of approximately 560 doses.
When asked to present a certificate of qualification and a certificate with product photography, they both refused. Later, one of the companies submitted a high-quality stock image with a vial labeled “New Crown Vaccine.”
The enormous benefits of this epidemic are nothing new. In April, VICE World News discovered that several dark web sellers were selling blood from COVID-19 patients they claimed to recover at a price of nearly $ 16,000 per liter, and promised potential buyers that they would be immune to the novel coronavirus for some time. lifetime. Then in September, another vendor in the same market announced COVID home test kits, claiming that it had made more than $ 1.4 million selling these kits to under-resourced hospitals.
Even the “vaccine” has already been announced on the dark web market as early as April, and there are also ever-expanding fake prescriptions and drugs. But now, as countries continue to update the record for new confirmed cases in a single day, demand has reached the highest level in history.
So what is the likelihood that people will sell Pfizer vaccines online? What does this mean for people around the world who are eager to skip the line and get the COVID vaccine as soon as possible?
Dr. Barbara Mintzes, associate professor at the Charles Perkins Center and the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, urged consumers to proceed with caution. “There are so many red flags here, it’s hard to know where to start,” he told VICE World News by phone. “Even on the ordinary Internet, there is a question: If a person buys prescription drugs or something similar to a vaccine, do they really get what they think? There are absolutely no guarantees.”
“This is a particularly strange problem,” added Dr. Mintzes. “In this regard, the vaccine must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius. And this is before it has been promoted in the UK.” In other words: a small bottle. “” Pfizer “is not something that is easy to mail, and it is not yet clear how these vendors (whether pharmacists or not) get the drugs in the first place.
Even assuming that the “Pfizer vaccine” sold on the dark web market is genuine, Dr. Mintzes pointed out that this creates a number of ethical and public health problems. One: the problem of reduced supply. The UK has already assigned an “emergency use” authorization for Pfizer vaccines, temporarily covering a limited number of specific batches of drugs. These vaccine batches need to be tiered, with priority given to those most in need: the elderly and vulnerable groups, as well as front-line health workers.
By placing severely restricted and potentially life-saving vaccines on the free market, dark web marketers will effectively snatch drugs from those who need them most and transfer them to their highest paying customers. This leads to the second question.
“The problem with simply opening it up to the private market is that ultimately it will lead to people’s financial condition, their wealth, which will determine who gets the vaccine first, not those who will necessarily need the vaccine,” explained Dr. Mintzes. “Especially in situations like public health emergencies, this is not the best way to get the best benefit from vaccination.”
Also, assuming these products are actually Pfizer vaccines, Dr. Mintzes noted: “There is not even a published study describing the results of clinical trials of the vaccine. Therefore, we know very little about its effects: There are many unknowns regarding efficacy, much less safety. “
VICE believes that in the most likely case, this is all just a scam, and this risk factor becomes even greater. Except that buyers who do not know the truth can become victims of the scam, they do not know what is in the vials sold by the dark web providers. Dr. Mintzes compared it to when people buy Viagra online, not knowing if they are taking toxic substances. But in this case, even if it is not, there will be additional risks. Some people will eventually think they are vaccinated against COVID-19, but in reality they are nothing.
This is concerning on several levels and, according to Dr. Mintzes, it is something that deserves the attention of authorities and regulators.
“I don’t know how many people will actually go to the dark web to buy vaccines, but in my opinion this sounds like the kind of thing that really requires a response from the regulator,” he said. “If it’s fraudulent activity because they don’t really sell vaccines, then it’s a regulatory response; if they really sell vaccines, as a pharmacist, then there are many levels. Moral and criminal activity.”
She concluded: “On the one hand, from a public health point of view, there are very good reasons to introduce the vaccine in this way. On the other hand, you can never guarantee that you will get the real product. On the other hand, Yes, this is actually encouraging unethical activities. “
