President Biden: Vaccine Disinformation is “killing people”
DisinfoWatch has been tracking, analysing, and exposing COVID-related disinformation throughout the pandemic. We have warned that both domestic and foreign actors have promoted narratives that cast doubt about the need for masks or other restrictions, the safety of vaccines, and even the existence of the COVID-19 virus since the start of the pandemic.
In March 2020, the European Union’s External Action Service warned about the threat of foreign interference and the efforts of malign foreign actors, like the Russian government, “to worsen the impact of the coronavirus, generate panic and sow distrust.”
The impact of foreign and domestic disinformation in provoking widespread vaccine hesitancy has become a significant concern in many Western democracies. On July 16, 2021, President Biden told reporters that misinformation appearing on social media platforms, like Facebook was “killing people – I mean they’re really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.”
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned earlier on July 15, 2021, that misinformation is “one of several reasons why people are not getting vaccinated, but it’s a very important one, because what we know from polls … is that two-thirds of people who are not vaccinated either believe common myths about the Covid-19 vaccine or think some of those myths might be true.”
While platforms like Facebook have adopted measures to identify COVID-19 related misinformation and disinformation and have started identifying the state affiliation of some foreign media platforms, false narratives are still being widely shared on Facebook and many other social media sites.
Among recent vaccine-related misinformation are those that claim vaccines contain a substance known as graphene oxide, which is produced when graphite is oxidized. Some conspiracy theorists claim that graphene oxide is being injected into humans to conduct 5G surveillance, while others, including a Canadian far-right media platform, claim that the vaccine “is a poisonous death sentence.
These conspiracy theories stem from a report published by a University of Almería professor, based on his analysis of a single vial of what he believes was the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccine was delivered to the professor by a messenger service from an unknown sender and source. The university has warned that the study is an “unofficial report by a university professor about an analysis of a sample of unknown origin with a total lack of traceability” and that the “university neither subscribes to nor shares, as the report itself warns.”
A Canadian-based conspiracy theory website identified by the US State Department as a “pillar of Russian disinformation,” Globalresearch.ca, has also published several recent stories about graphene oxide that have been shared on social media.
When disinformation on the dangers of vaccines are shared with millions of users on social media platforms, including Facebook, they can impact rates of vaccine hesitancy in the general population. While President Biden’s statement that Facebook is “killing people” may not be literally accurate, vaccine disinformation shared and amplified on Facebook does promote vaccine hesitancy and could contribute to greater COVID infection rates, which could result in deaths that could have otherwise been prevented by vaccines.
Vaccine Passports in Cross-Hairs of Foreign Disinformation Actors
In addition to vaccine hesitancy, social media analytics data shows that anti-vaccination certificate/passport narratives are becoming trending topics on anti-mask and anti-vaccination social media pages. As the debate about the future need for vaccine certification/passports for foreign travel and domestic services (school reopening, workplaces, shopping) rises, we expect to see a proliferation of misinformation targeting this issue. Narratives about 5G chips and graphene oxide are already being linked with vaccine passports by conspiracy theorists and far-left and far-right extremists.
Global Research has published stories encouraging public protests to oppose vaccine passports. Another recent Global Research story claims that vaccine passports were planned by the global elite long before the pandemic started, and links them to both a Pentagon COVID microchip program and electronic tracking system as well as a flying mosquito/syringe vaccination project.
Russian Vaccine Hesitancy Propaganda Backfires On Kremlin
Over the past eight months, Russian state and proxy actors have published and amplified narratives that aim to erode confidence in western developed and produced COVID-19 vaccines in efforts to boost sales of its own Sputnik V vaccine. Even the Russian Embassy in Canada has published stories to promote vaccine hesitancy on its website, as reported by DisinfoWatch earlier this year.
In May, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) published a detailed investigative report into a murky Russian network that promotes nutritional supplements, malware, and disinformation about western COVID-19 vaccines. A political operative, Yulia Serebryanskaya, who previously organized events and political campaigns for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia, was identified in the report as being behind the campaign.
In June 2021, DisinfoWatch provided an overview of an emerging story about French bloggers who were approached with offers to criticize Western vaccines in return for payment. According to the RFERL report, the offers came from a company named Fazze, which is part of a marketing agency called AdNow; that agency has a presence both in Britain and Russia. The report states that “until 2018, the owner of the Russian unit of AdNow was Serebryanskaya,” and that she has worked for Russian state media and on campaigns for former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin’s 2012 re-election campaign.
During the pandemic, Russia has regularly promoted disinformation about Western vaccines in efforts to boost the attractiveness of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. In October 2020, The Times reported on a Russian campaign to promote doubts about AstraZeneca. And in December, the EU’s top diplomat, Joseph Borrell, said that “Western vaccine developers are openly mocked on multi-lingual Russian state-controlled media, which has in some cases led to absurd claims that vaccines will turn people into monkeys.” He added that “such narratives are apparently directed at countries where Russia wants to sell its own vaccine, Sputnik V.”
Russia’s Communist Party has been actively exploiting anti-vaccination narratives and conspiracy theories about its origins ahead of Russian parliamentary elections in September 2021. One Communist Party leader with connections to the Kremlin, “Sergei Kurginyan, has also been conducting an active anti-vaccination campaign, alternately referring to the coronavirus itself as well as the vaccine against it as “biological weapons.”
Russian state media has reinforced and legitimized conspiracy theories about COVID-19, for example, promoting wild claims that COVID-19 is part of a Western biological warfare attack that is being led by “Zionist neocons.”
In a twist to Russia’s vaccine propaganda campaigns, it seems that the Kremlin’s efforts to promote hesitancy towards western vaccines may have backfired. Vaccine hesitancy among Russians has become a serious problem and only 12.5 percent of Russians have received the first dose of Sputnik V. Vaccine hesitancy in Russia has contributed to soaring COVID rates and deaths.
Russian state media has begun spinning low Russian vaccination rates into a narrative whereby Russia is the victim of Western efforts to promote vaccine hesitancy.
Cuban Protests Were Not Controlled By Western Nations
Cuban officials claim that Western governments are responsible for inciting protests that have spontaneously erupted in Cuba over the past weeks. These claims have been published and amplified on Russian and Chinese government-aligned media platforms.
One such Russian government platform, which was recently placed on the US sanctions list for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US elections, claimed that “there is little doubt that the civil unrest to hit Cuba this week has been instigated by the United States using ‘color revolution’ tactics for regime change.” Such accusations are commonplace in Russian and Chinese government media whenever pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests appear in illiberal non-democratic nations. Such narratives and false claims are intended to de-legitimize these protest movements as being controlled and instigated by outside forces.
Contrary to foreign disinformation narratives, the United States does not prohibit “the export of agricultural products and food, medicine and medical equipment, and humanitarian goods” to Cuba. Indeed, the embargo has not extended to food and humanitarian supplies (such as medicine) for over two decades. Today, America is the largest exporter of food to Cuba. The US also does not prohibit other nations from trading or engaging with Cuba. Canada, for example, is Cuba’s leading source of foreign revenue through tourism.
Cuba’s acute food and medicine shortage is due to its own economic failures, the repressive and authoritarian nature of the regime, and widespread corruption. Freedom House states in its 2021 report that “corruption remains a serious problem in Cuba, with widespread illegality permeating everyday life.”
Sanctions adopted and imposed by Western governments are indeed designed to apply economic pressure on targeted regimes. Sanctions are usually intended to promote changes in behaviour – often in the areas of human rights, corruption and other potentially destabilizing activities.
The Cuban protests were widely regarded by independent observers and media as being spontaneous and facilitated by like-minded Cubans who have connected via social media through the island’s limited Internet.
