Another “super-win” for Russia’s “super-vaccine” Sputnik-V!
Chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Thomas Mertens, has referred to the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine as a good one, suggesting that it should be approved for use in the EU.
Russian media are extatic over what they present is yet another confession! But, I’m just wondering, has anyone in Russia ever heard of that Stiko? Or let’s put it this way, how many Germans are aware of having such an “influential” organization? You will be surprised: the situation is about the same as it is in Russia.
The fact is that Stiko is not a government agency, but merely a group of volunteers with some 18 permanent members on the board, who meet twice a year to discuss pressing issues in Germany. A kind of a discussion club or a panel. The most attention the group has ever gotten from the media was when it turned out that they fed off of the opaque financing by a number of vaccine manufacturers for publishing rather dubious, laudatory reviews about certain drugs.
Back then, the scandal reached the Bundestag level, but the unscrupulous pharmacists were never eventually brought to justice.
Nevertheless, the Stiko organization has long compromised itself, and bias in its reporting is beyond doubt. But still, the question remains relevant — what did the Russian side promise to Thomas Mertens for praising Sputnik-V? According to a classic scheme, with an eye to Gerhard Schroeder, Karin Kneissl and other Kremlin lobbyists in the EU, I would assume this could be a cosy post with the Russian Ministry of Health or some pharmaceutical company? Or perhaps it could be a one-off crypto payment?
But it’s still funny to watch how Russian propagandists fall into a hurray-patriotic euphoria after a corrupt pharmacist, totally unknown in Russia and little-known in Germany, claims that Sputnik-V is a good jab. In turn, organizations such as WHO and EMA distance themselves from the Russian vaccine as from a plague-ridden flask.
Well, isn’t that hilarious?
