This week’s Russian propaganda: Ukraine to smuggle Russian vaccine via EU as British vaccine turns people into monkeys





2020/10/27 - 20:16 • HYBRID WAR

Article by: EU vs Disinfo
Source: EU vs Disinfo


Vaccines: nothing but a monkey business

As COVID-19 cases skyrocket across Europe, so does disinformation on the pandemic. Take, for example, a story claiming that Ukraine will buy a Russian vaccine and that the purchase will be made via European Union Member States. In reality, experts fear the approval of the Russian vaccine was premature. According to the Lancet, one of the world’s best-known medical journals, at that time the vaccine had not even started phase 3 trials. Another difficulty with this claim is the fact that none of the Member States had announced their intention to buy it.

Read also: These Rt graphs show how fast COVID-19 is spreading in Ukraine

The story is part of a broader narrative asserting that Russia fights the pandemic more effectively than Western democracies, boosting the credibility of a Russian vaccine and undermining that of other (Western) vaccines.

How do you erode the credibility of Western vaccines?An old trick is to administer a lie packed in a larger truth.

Successful campaigns often “shield a forgery under the armor of a larger truth,” explains disinfo scholar Thomas Rid. His acclaimed book, Active Measures, showcases a spectacular example of World War II, the forged Tanaka Memorial. This document (allegedly from 1927) was instrumental in convincing many states that Japan elaborated a military strategy to achieve world domination. It was not authentic though.

Why was this false narrative so effective? Because it was rooted in Japan’s actual assertive foreign policy of that time.

How do you apply this larger-truth method to Western vaccines?

To undermine the credibility of these vaccines, the pro-Kremlin media took a part of the truth (the Oxford vaccine is developed using chimpanzee viral vector) to rebrand it as “the monkey vaccine”. This enables the pro-Kremlin media to suggest that the British vaccine will turn people into monkeys and also tap into criticism of animal rights supporters and anti-vaxxers.

However, a point of no small irony: the principles behind the Sputnik V vaccine are, in most respects, the same as Oxford’s. Monkey see, monkey do?

The monkey narrative tries to erode the credibility of Western vaccines. Despite all this ambitious monkey business, one should remember a good old Jamaican proverb: the higher a monkey climbs, the more exposed he is.



RUSSIA USES RED SCARE COLD WAR PROPAGANDA FROM THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY ABOUT POLIO AND MONKEY VIRUS VACCINATIONS

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Further reading:
Secret labs and George Soros: Kremlin’s COVID-19 disinformation in the EU Eastern Partnership countries
Russian disinformation activities accompanying the MH17 trial
Why are Russian hackers targeting COVID-19 vaccine laboratories?
Vaccine hesitancy and pro-Kremlin opportunism: top-5 COVID-19 conspiracies
How pro-Kremlin outlets employed Satan to prop up disinformation efforts