A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
-
Lionel Urman
A rumor relayed on social networks affirms that Pfizer and BioNTech, at the origin of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine deployed in Europe since the end of December, had anticipated the pandemic months in advance.
According to him, they would indeed have ordered massive vials for their vaccine from November 2019 from the German company Schott, and this deception would have been revealed during a search of its premises.
It is a poison: the orders of pharmaceutical companies were carried out after the start of the epidemic.
“Breathtaking!
"," Pfizer and BioNTech knew what was coming!
»… From Facebook to Twitter via certain blogs and forums, the same rumor has met with some success for several weeks.
According to him, the two co-designers of the Covid-19 vaccine launched in Europe at the end of December would have been aware - even before the official reporting of a first case in China at the end of 2019 - that such an epidemic was going to strike the planet .
The proof ?
They would have ordered cold-resistant vials from the fall of 2019, thus anticipating a particular feature of their vaccine, which must be stored at - 70 ° C.
“The BND (Bundes Narichten Dienst, the German intelligence service) heard from the bosses of glassmaker Schott, whose headquarters and factory in Mainz he raided today.
[…] Why the search?
Because Pfizer and BionNtech have ordered 2 x 800 million vaccine vials resistant to a temperature of - 100 ° C, a temperature never used to date for this application.
”Says one of these posts.
And to conclude: “But above all, this order was placed on November 2, 2019, well before we heard about the Covid!
[…] How could they have found a vaccine so quickly where thousands of researchers have failed for years?
"
The publication may not cite any source or element supporting its words, it has been widely used since, including on certain television sets.
FAKE OFF
Contacted by
20 Minutes
, the German company Schott denounces a "rumor which could not be more false".
"We had no contact with the BND, and our first exchanges with the pharmaceutical industry about an order for vials used for the Covid-19 vaccines took place in 2020, when the epidemic struck. Europe, ”she tells us.
The massive production of vaccine vials by the company Schott, based in Mainz, is also no secret: an AFP dispatch, notably taken up by
L'Express
, came back at length on December 30.
"The" borosilicate "glass which he has made his specialty is highly sought after for its ability to withstand extreme temperatures, ranging from - 80 to 500 ° C.
[…] By the end of 2021, Schott intends to produce enough vials for two billion doses of vaccine, ”she explained, while stressing that the biotechnology start-up BioNTech had decided to react very quickly to the Covid -19 from the end of January, even baptizing this operation "Speed of light".
"Fake news from A to Z"
At the end of November 2020, Jean-Yves Grandemange, vice-president in charge of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) sales of Schott's pharmaceutical systems, had already detailed this schedule in Les
Echos
: “From December 2019 to January 2020 , we had received alerts from China.
From February-March, our large laboratories surveyed us on special requests to be delivered by 2021. "
These orders allowed Schott to "accelerate" its investments of one billion dollars which had been announced in March 2019, and this for 2025.
Contacted by
20 Minutes
, the Bundesnachrichtendienst had not responded to our requests before the publication of the article.
A source from the German administration, however, told our colleagues at Checknews that this rumor is "fake news from A to Z" and that no investigation is aimed at "Schott or BioNTech".
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