The anti-vaccination campaign started while the pandemic is in full swing. Lay people in medicine share unverified information, videos and out-of-context documents trying to sabotage the COVID-19 vaccine, which is one of the pandemic measures. Unfortunately, the disinformation campaign that took place not only had an impact on the country but was also organized and shared in the region.Former MIA correspondent living in Brussels, Boban Nonkovic, also took part in the campaign, posting a video on his Facebook profile on December 8th, presenting disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine to the public. The video, which went viral in a short time, was rated as inaccurate by the fact-finding service Vistinomer because it is not fact-based. However, what the Facebook audience could hear, given the large number of interactions, is of great detriment to the vaccination process to follow. Nonkovic's video by Dr. Danailovski was described as an attempt to sabotage the vaccine: "In a situation where there is a cataclysm on a planetary level, in a time of 'war', in a time of dying, hunters dare to sabotage in the dark the only measure that can bring about a solution to the pandemic - vaccination!"Nonkovic abuses the transparency of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Biological Assessment and Research, which, following all protocols, has released a Plan to Monitor the Safety and Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccine for Vaccine Manufacturers. The Center is the body responsible for regulating biological products, including vaccines in the United States. The second document that Nonkovic explains is a briefing document outlining the initial results of monitoring the effects of the vaccine on about 38,000 participants over the age of 16, and the ratio between the vaccine group and the placebo group is 1: 1. It is worth noting that the briefing document presents the results of the 3rd phase.Developing a new vaccine goes through several steps:
This user manages to share the video more than 10 times in several different groups in one minute. Only as an example we will mention the posts in the BORN IN THE USSR (СОЮЗ РОЖДЁННЫХ В СССР), Macedonian National Interests (Makedonski Nacionalni Interesi), Evmro (еВМРО), World Macedonian Congress, Initiative to exclude the reformers from VMRO-DPMNE(Иницијатива да се исклучат реформаторите од ВМРО-ДПМНЕ), Wall of Health Shame (Ѕид на здравствениот срам????), MACEDONIA from the people for the people! ( MAKEDONIJA od narodot i za Narodot!), Let's love Macedonia together !( Заедно да ја сакаме Македонија !), MACEDONIAN DIASPORA (MAKEDONSKA DIJASPORA). At the same minute, the video was once again shared in the same groups, except for one (probably missed by mistake), while in the Russian group BORN IN THE USSR (СОЮЗ РОЖДЁННЫХ В СССР), the video was shared several times during the day.
In the sharing participated not only profiles from North Macedonia, but also from the region, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia. Unfortunately, this is not the first time individuals from North Macedonia have been "exporters" of disinformation to other countries.This is an example of a disinformation campaign conducted by domestic and foreign actors.In addition, according to public reactions, the video was shared in inbox - a technique that is not used for the first time but has been used to conduct disinformation campaigns since the beginning of the pandemic.Nonkovic's narrative is that the US Food and Drug Administration is a "Deep State" tool, and that someone not only robotized humanity a long time ago but depopulated it and put it in shackles to reach that golden billion population that is the maximum what should the world have, which the sponsors of these vaccines, led by Bill Gates, announced.It is obvious that the end of the video is trying to show the "big picture", that is, it contains anti-Western sentiment, and to promote the conspiracy theory that “the world is ruled by a world elite, embodied by Bill Gates and in this case the US Agency for food, which aims to robotize and thus depopulate the world population”. However, it is unclear what the connection between "robotization" and "depopulation" is.The video uses several disinformation techniques that have already been identified in the study of this phenomenon.The first feature is the distortion of the facts, so that the potential negative effects of the vaccine are presented as already confirmed effects that will certainly occur. It is a half-truth, one of the most dangerous tools of disinformation, which is often much more dangerous than a pure lie.Disinformation is also used to distract the public from another important event. The same day the video was released, the media reported that vaccination had begun in the UK, and the video placed a counter-narrative that the vaccines were harmful.Furthermore, there is a discredit (Dismiss) of the pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccines - Pfizer and Biotech and Astra Zeneka.On the other hand, despite the discredit, a document / source from Western democracies is misused. The transparency of the institutions of Western democracies is often misused in disinformation campaigns, which distort reality and facts, and are used to portray the West in a negative light.Additionally, he is building his authority on the basis of the European Parliament and Croatian MP Kolakusic, who on October 30th, 2020, asked Parliament not to shut down because the coronavirus was "a common cold, and does not know anyone who has contracted it."Who is Boban Nonkovic?Boban Nonkovic is a journalist, former MIA correspondent from Brussels. It is known about his political background that he was against the name change, i.e. he agitated for the boycott of the referendum in 2018.He lives in Brussels and often defends Russia, which can be seen from just one interview on his friend Milenko Nedelkovski's 2018 show, where he states that the Skripal poisoning case was used as a political tool of the Western world against Russia. His contents, videos, Facebook posts against the Euro-Atlantic integration of N. Macedonia, as well as narratives for the federalization of N. Macedonia, for the implementation of the "Tirana Platform" are published by the portal Mina Report.Civil Media in 2019 reveals that Mina Report publishes pro-Russian propaganda content by Russian authors in English. It is unclear who is behind this website, because it does not provide any information about the editorial office, except that the contact section lists the city of Skopje and an e-mail address. According to the research of Civil Media, it is symptomatic for this website that it was registered only one week before the forcible entry into the Parliament on April 27th, 2017.
New vaccine research application.
Clinical trials of the vaccine (phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3) of tens of thousands of volunteers.
Vaccine approval application.
Inspection of production facilities where the vaccine is produced.
Present findings to the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, which reviews and evaluates data on safety, efficacy and appropriate use.
pro-Russian FB groups OLD SLAVS GROUP CYRIL AND METHODS / MACEDONIAN-RUSSIAN GROUP (СТАРО СЛАВЈАНСКА ГРУПА КИРИЛ И МЕТОДИ/MAСEDONIAN-RUSSIAN GROUP), Discussion Group of the Association Peace - Macedonia and Russia (Група за дискусија на Здружението МиР - Македонија и Русија), etc .;
anonymous groups with predominantly nationalist content: Macedonia Today (Македонија Денес), Macedonian National Interests (Makedonski Nacionalni Interesi), MACEDONIAN NATION (MAKEDONSKA NACIJA) etc .;
profiles of the pro-Russian political party Rodina.
Russian groups, including the BORN IN THE USSR (СОЮЗ РОЖДЁННЫХ В СССР), with more than 70,000 members.
This user manages to share the video more than 10 times in several different groups in one minute. Only as an example we will mention the posts in the BORN IN THE USSR (СОЮЗ РОЖДЁННЫХ В СССР), Macedonian National Interests (Makedonski Nacionalni Interesi), Evmro (еВМРО), World Macedonian Congress, Initiative to exclude the reformers from VMRO-DPMNE(Иницијатива да се исклучат реформаторите од ВМРО-ДПМНЕ), Wall of Health Shame (Ѕид на здравствениот срам????), MACEDONIA from the people for the people! ( MAKEDONIJA od narodot i za Narodot!), Let's love Macedonia together !( Заедно да ја сакаме Македонија !), MACEDONIAN DIASPORA (MAKEDONSKA DIJASPORA). At the same minute, the video was once again shared in the same groups, except for one (probably missed by mistake), while in the Russian group BORN IN THE USSR (СОЮЗ РОЖДЁННЫХ В СССР), the video was shared several times during the day.In the sharing participated not only profiles from North Macedonia, but also from the region, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia. Unfortunately, this is not the first time individuals from North Macedonia have been "exporters" of disinformation to other countries.This is an example of a disinformation campaign conducted by domestic and foreign actors.In addition, according to public reactions, the video was shared in inbox - a technique that is not used for the first time but has been used to conduct disinformation campaigns since the beginning of the pandemic.Nonkovic's narrative is that the US Food and Drug Administration is a "Deep State" tool, and that someone not only robotized humanity a long time ago but depopulated it and put it in shackles to reach that golden billion population that is the maximum what should the world have, which the sponsors of these vaccines, led by Bill Gates, announced.It is obvious that the end of the video is trying to show the "big picture", that is, it contains anti-Western sentiment, and to promote the conspiracy theory that “the world is ruled by a world elite, embodied by Bill Gates and in this case the US Agency for food, which aims to robotize and thus depopulate the world population”. However, it is unclear what the connection between "robotization" and "depopulation" is.The video uses several disinformation techniques that have already been identified in the study of this phenomenon.The first feature is the distortion of the facts, so that the potential negative effects of the vaccine are presented as already confirmed effects that will certainly occur. It is a half-truth, one of the most dangerous tools of disinformation, which is often much more dangerous than a pure lie.Disinformation is also used to distract the public from another important event. The same day the video was released, the media reported that vaccination had begun in the UK, and the video placed a counter-narrative that the vaccines were harmful.Furthermore, there is a discredit (Dismiss) of the pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccines - Pfizer and Biotech and Astra Zeneka.On the other hand, despite the discredit, a document / source from Western democracies is misused. The transparency of the institutions of Western democracies is often misused in disinformation campaigns, which distort reality and facts, and are used to portray the West in a negative light.Additionally, he is building his authority on the basis of the European Parliament and Croatian MP Kolakusic, who on October 30th, 2020, asked Parliament not to shut down because the coronavirus was "a common cold, and does not know anyone who has contracted it."Who is Boban Nonkovic?Boban Nonkovic is a journalist, former MIA correspondent from Brussels. It is known about his political background that he was against the name change, i.e. he agitated for the boycott of the referendum in 2018.He lives in Brussels and often defends Russia, which can be seen from just one interview on his friend Milenko Nedelkovski's 2018 show, where he states that the Skripal poisoning case was used as a political tool of the Western world against Russia. His contents, videos, Facebook posts against the Euro-Atlantic integration of N. Macedonia, as well as narratives for the federalization of N. Macedonia, for the implementation of the "Tirana Platform" are published by the portal Mina Report.Civil Media in 2019 reveals that Mina Report publishes pro-Russian propaganda content by Russian authors in English. It is unclear who is behind this website, because it does not provide any information about the editorial office, except that the contact section lists the city of Skopje and an e-mail address. According to the research of Civil Media, it is symptomatic for this website that it was registered only one week before the forcible entry into the Parliament on April 27th, 2017.
