Dear Editor,
It comes as no surprise that the Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon, would disseminate fake news regarding the vaccines in an attempt to deceive the Guyanese populace and score cheap political points at the expense of the lives of those over whom he has influence.
This sort of deceit has been the modus operandi of the coalition ever since they came into being. Recently, Harmon published a graphic on his Facebook page in which he is quoted as saying that “a batch of 200,000 fake Sputnik V vaccines was discovered in Mexico”. He also mentioned this in one of his recent press conferences, wherein he sought to disparage the COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
However, a simple Google search to fact-check the information clearly debunked Harmon’s assertions. In fact, on March 18, 2021, Reuters reported that only 5,775 doses of the Sputnik V vaccines Harmon referenced were discovered to be fake, as against the 200,000 he asserted.
The Reuters article also pointed out that the discovery of 5,775 doses was made in Mexico, while the doses were en route to Honduras, and had no connection to the authentic vaccines sent to Mexico from Russia.
In addition, the reality is that the Russian Government agency the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has a direct interest in vaccine integrity, reported the discovery of the fake vaccines in Mexico. But despite such evidence on the matter being easily accessible online, Harmon has continued to spread the lies across social media for quite some time. Though he made other posts doubling down on some of the other misinformation, he merely omitted this specific lie, instead of pointing out its inaccuracy.
The fact that Harmon silently wiped his social media of the false claim without updating Guyanese on the truth shows how irresponsible he is as a leader, and it reaffirms my initial position that his intention was to deceive the Guyanese populace. Harmon has, time after time, shown that he and his cohorts cannot be trusted.
Respectfully,
Erin Northe
