After COVID-19 Hush-Up, China Spreads Pfizer Vaccine Disinformation As Its Own Shots Look Dubious

As questions crop up over the efficacy of China-made COVID-19 vaccines, the Chinese state media has stepped up a disinformation campaign against the Pfizer vaccine, which has been approved for use in several countries after rigorous trials.

Researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a government-supported think tank, reported a spike in Chinese disinformation since researchers in Brazil found that the effectiveness of a Chinese vaccine was much lower than previously thought.

Most of the propaganda centers around the deaths of elders in Norway after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. The Norwegian Medicines Agency said 30 people in the country's care homes died after vaccination as of Jan. 21. No link to the vaccine was suspected in several of these cases.

"Every day, an average of 45 people die in Norwegian nursing homes or other similar institutions. The fact that some nursing home residents die soon after being vaccinated does not imply that there is a causal relationship," the agency said.

Norway has vaccinated about 63,000 people since Dec. 27. Officials have compiled 104 cases of adverse reactions, including deaths. The agency said mild adverse reactions following the vaccination could have deteriorated the conditions of frail elderly people.

China’s state media called for an investigation into the deaths in Norway. “Mainstream English-language media did not report the incident immediately, as if they had already reached a consensus,” state-run Global Times wrote an op-ed on Jan. 15. CGTN also accused the western media of ignoring the incident.

China’s allegations come in the backdrop of a World Health Organization investigation into the origin of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan more than a year ago. The presence of the WHO team on ground zero and the bad press its own vaccines received have posed political risks for the Chinese regime.

Brazil studies said this month the Sinovac vaccine only showed an efficacy of 50.4%, much lower than the 78% efficacy reported earlier. Brazil and Turkey have also reported a delay in shipments of the doses and ingredients from Chinese companies.

Director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control Gao Fu had raised concerns in December over the mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer's and Moderna's. He said mRNA vaccines were being given to healthy people for the first time and such a roll-out was not without its risks.