The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reportedly accused four online Russian publications of spreading misinformation about the Pfizer vaccine.
The leading business-focused publication mentioned that an official of the US State Department had made the allegation against Russian media because of the reactions to Pfizer’s vaccine.
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As per the newspaper, the official claims that although the alleged publishing sites do not have big audiences, a few stories related to COVID-19 have been picked up and are spreading like wildfire in most countries. He argued that such ‘infringements’ draw undesirable focus to complications, things that people hardly notice if there is no news to back them up.
The sites being accused are the New Eastern Outlook, the Oriental Review, News Front, and the Rebel Inside. In this regard, the US State Department official was quoted by the WSJ as saying that Russia bears “direct responsibility for using these four platforms to spread propaganda and lies”.
So far, Moscow has dismissed these allegations and its stance on global criticism remains unchallenged otherwise.
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Russia had announced in November last year that its Sputnik V vaccine had an efficacy of 90 percent against the coronavirus, but critics had argued that the existing clinical data was too small to reaffirm the claim.
However, the British medical publication The Lancet reported in February that large-scale testing of the Sputnik V vaccine had been conducted and had backed Russia’s claims that its vaccine is on par with Pfizer’s top-of-the-line vaccine, and is, perhaps, even more effective.