A UK-based PR agency with alleged connections to Russia reportedly offered money to French and German influencers to discredit the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report from The Guardian.
Fazze, a company that bills itself as an “influencer marketing platform,” is said to have been in contact with various French YouTubers in recent weeks, asking them to “explain … the death rate among the vaccinated with Pfizer is almost 3x higher than the vaccinated by AstraZeneca.” Fazze falsely claimed to be based in London at an address the company is not registered to. Mor recently, the company’s his week its website was shut down and its Instagram was made private.
Any influencers contacted were told to tell their audience “the mainstream media ignores this theme,” while asking, “why some governments actively purchasing Pfizer vaccine, which is dangerous to the health of the people?”
Léo Grasset, a well-known French YouTuber who focuses on science, said the project proposal came with a “collosal budget” and did not reveal who the client was. According to French publication Numerama, Fazze also implored those it contacted to “encourage viewers to draw their own conclusions, take care of themselves and their loved ones.”
German YouTuber and podcast host Mirko Drotschman also posted a screenshot of an email he received regarding such an offer.
Per the Guardian, Fazze’s presence on LinkedIn indicates the company’s management is based in, or at least from Moscow, Russia. Some have pointed out that Fazze’s messages are remarkably similar to the messaging from Russia’s Sputnik V Twitter account, which continues to push the narrative that its vaccines are “safer and more efficient” than any Western-produced vaccine might be, regardless of evidence.
According to a study from the European Union last month, both Moscow and Beijing have been involved in “state-sponsored disinformation” campaigns to increase hesitancy for any Western-produced vaccines.
