France puzzled by mystery anti-Pfizer campaign bid
Several French public media influencers say they have received a mysterious financial present to spread detrimental publicity about the Pfizer vaccine.
They say a company claiming to be based in the UK has contacted them by email offering a "partnership".
Léo Grasset, who provides 1.17m YouTube subscribers, tweeted (in French) that a "colossal spending plan" was promised from a customer "who wants to remain incognito".
He said that the address the company had given appeared to be bogus.
He said the LinkedIn profiles of the agency's alleged personnel he had were able to find soon after disappeared, however, not before he pointed out that "everybody there has worked in Russia".
Léo Grasset posted what he said were instructions from the organization, urging him never to use such words as "advertising" or perhaps "sponsored video" if he were to agree to the partnership offer.
"Present the material due to your own independent watch," the email said.
In addition, it asked him to spread among his followers a good false claim that the death count among the vaccinated by Pfizer is nearly three times greater than among anyone who has received AstraZeneca.
Several other French interpersonal media influencers, most of whom get excited about medical and science discipline, said that they had been contacted with an identical offer.
Et Ça Se Dit Médecin, a hospital intern with an increase of than 85,000 Instagram followers, told France's BFMTV that he was offered €2,050 ($2,510; £1,775) for a 30-second tale on his account.
In the mean time, French Health Minister Olivier Véran told BFMTV: "I do not be aware of where this [partnership present] originates from, from France or abroad. "It really is pathetic, it really is dangerous, it is irresponsible and it generally does not work."
The two-dosage Pfizer vaccine (name Pfizer-BioNTech) is the most commonly administered vaccine in France. It is produced by America's Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech companies.
AstraZeneca, also a good two-dose vaccine being found in France, is manufactured by a UK-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
In April, a EU report said Russian and Chinese state-run media were systematically trying to sow open public mistrust in Western Covid vaccines - a claim denied in Moscow.
