Online influencers offered cash bribe to smear Pfizer vaccine

France’s health minister has blasted as “dangerous, irresponsible and pathetic” an attempt by a mysterious “UK-based” PR agency asking influencers and YouTube personalities to publicly denigrate the Pfizer vaccine in exchange for money.

Targets of the campaign, who are active in the health and science fields, said they had received an email offer by the agency of "a partnership" on behalf of a customer with "a colossal budget" but who wanted to remain anonymous and also to keep any deal secret.

"Strange. I've received a partnership proposal which consists of slamming the Pfizer vaccine in a video," tweeted Leo Grasset, whose popular science channel has nearly 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube.

"Colossal budget, client wants to remain incognito, and I'd have to hide the sponsorship."

He added: "Incredible. The address of the London agency that contacted me is fake. They never had a presence there, it's a laser surgery centre. All staff have weird LinkedIn profiles."

The profiles later disappeared, but not before he noticed that "everybody there has worked in Russia”.

A popular doctor, Jérémie, alias Docteur JFK on TikTok, told France Info: “I had to say that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine caused three times as many deaths as AstraZeneca (the Anglo-Swedish vaccine)".

Those approached were reportedly offered €2,000 if they obliged.

When asked about the curious smear attempt, French health minister Olivier Véran said: "This is pathetic, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible and it's not going to work.”

French people are mostly in favour of getting vaccinated and "I don't think that any attempt to turn them away from vaccines will work," he told BFMTV, adding he had "no idea" whether the supposed offer might have originated in Russia.

The authors of the emails claimed to be a London-based agency called Fazze but were hard to trace, according to French media.

Le Monde newspaper said Fazze had never been registered in the UK, but may have a legal presence in the Virgin Islands.

But according to the LinkedIn profile of Fazze's CEO, now deleted, the agency operates out of Moscow, said Le Monde.

The Pfizer jab has gained in popularity in France after AstraZeneca fell out of favour in much of the European Union because of health concerns and delivery delays.

The EU has authorised two other vaccines for use, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

However, Russia's Sputnik vaccine - as well as China's Sinopharm - are still not cleared for use in the bloc.