Vaccination in Israel, disinformation campaign against Pfizer BioNTech
Audio 03:30
A Covid-19 vaccination center in Rosh Haayin, Israel.
January 2021. © AP - Oded Balilty
By: Sophie Malibeaux
17 mins
News on the Covid-19 pandemic is dominated by the race for vaccines, driven by the need to return to normal life.
But there is still on the internet, a minority acting to dissuade populations from being vaccinated en masse.
Israel, the country where vaccination is the most advanced in the world, is a prime target for infox propagators.
Publicity
We can read on the
International Network
site
that “
Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine has killed 40 times more elderly people than the virus itself
”.
Which is false, but circulates on social networks, without verification.
The site looks at the situation in Israel where nearly half of the population has already received two doses of the vaccine.
They will soon be 6 million to have received the first dose, or two thirds of the population.
The article of this site with more than 156,000 subscribers on Facebook, claims to base its analysis on data from the Israeli Ministry of Health, but it is not.
He cites the results of a "
mathematical demonstration
", which is not.
The reality is quite different, according to Bruno Toussaint, editorial director of the journal
Prescrire
: “
With regard to the risk of infection or hospitalization, we observe a reduction of half or three quarters, and for severe forms, after injection of a second dose, it is a reduction of the cases of the order of 80%
”.
Prescrire
is a specialized journal intended for healthcare professionals, which does not depend on any laboratory.
Its analyzes are the result of independent work.
Everything is done to avoid possible conflicts of interest within the journal, explains Bruno Toussaint.
Dr Bruno Toussaint on the independent nature of the journal Prescrire
Dr Bruno Toussaint on the effects of vaccination in Israel
Rude infox disconnected from reality
In contrast, the site which publishes the infox according to which in Israel, the vaccine would have killed more elderly people than the virus, presents only incomplete, inaccurate and not sourced data.
The article even goes so far as to designate the vaccine administered in Israel as a “
Chinese vaccine
”, when it is in fact a partnership between the American laboratories
Pfizer
and German
BioNTech
.
A prolific author in the conspiratorial sphere
The article published by
Réseau International
on its site and relayed on several platforms is signed Ethan Huff.
This is a French translation of an article published on an American site.
It does not appear certain that this is a natural person.
One can even doubt it with regard to the number of articles signed Ethan Huff on the most diverse subjects.
Most of these are infoxes taken from far-right American sites such as
Info Wars
, The
Epoch Times
or
A final warning
, known to relay ultra-conservative theses, as far as Europe or Africa.
The same Ethan Huff also published a purely conspiratorial article accusing Bill Gates, Georges Soros and the Rockefellers of having created the pandemic.
The denial thesis in the face of the pandemic
When we observe the accounts relaying the spurious article on the platforms
,
, or in groups on
Telegram
, we have the impression that the infox propagators are all drawing on the same sources.
The infoxes amplified voluntarily or not on the networks, cultivate denial in the face of the pandemic, and therefore the refusal of barrier measures as well as of vaccination.
They fuel the conspiratorial narrative that a global elite is using a virus created in the lab to exert control over populations.
These theses come from pharmacies which defend a clearly marked ideological line: anti-vaccine and pro-firearms in particular.
On one of these sites, between two anti-tax articles, you can find advertisements for firearms and invitations to shooting training sessions.
These websites rehash a frenzied individualist creed: out of the question to let the state take care of our health or our safety.
The same resistance to the fight against global warming.
Any collective approach is banned.
And as vaccination is, par excellence, a collective approach, which produces results only if a maximum of people adhere to it, the attacks are virulent against it.
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