In a recent publicity drive, Freedom Alliance South Africa (Fasa) released papers it claims to have lodged in the country’s high court calling the authorisation of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine “unlawful” and naming the South African health minister, regulatory authority SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) and Pfizer among its respondents.

But South African health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said that while the department had heard of the case, “we have not received court papers on this matter”.

Meanwhile, Willis Angira, Pfizer’s external communications manager for east and southern Africa, declined to comment, saying: “Unfortunately we cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

The 736-page “court documents” also have no court number or stamp indicating that they have actually been lodged in court.

Fasa appears to be part of the international anti-vax movement and cites as supporters of their case a number of outspoken critics of Covid vaccines, including UK cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, Professor Norman Fenton, Jessica Rose and Dr James Thorp.

Bizarre conspiracies

Fasa promotes a range of extreme conspiracy theories on its website, including that the world is run by Freemasons who “sold their souls to satanic Jewish bankers”, and together they orchestrate wars, “conspire for world domination” and “subvert the West”.

They have also published articles on their website claiming that the Covid vaccines contain artificial intelligence “synbio” aimed at “transforming humanity to Human version 2.0”, and that these react to Wi-Fi and 4G, and assemble microchips in people’s bloodstreams.

Fasa’s Telegram channel makes claims about vaccines making you magnetic or emitting Bluetooth signals, and bizarre 5G conspiracy theories about streetlights.

Meanwhile on their Telegram channel, the South African group taking Pfizer to court describes covid vaccines as bioweapons, claims public health measures are designed for "depopulation and control" / "enslavement and extermination", and accuses governments of mass murder! pic.twitter.com/kB3vdwp44O

— John Bye (@_johnbye) April 10, 2023

In the section on international partners, Fasa includes the logo of Save the Children, but a spokesperson for that organisation said “we are in no way associated with Fasa – this is not a campaign that we support”.

International vaccine court challenges

Meanwhile, in the US, renowned anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr. and his organisation, the Children’s Health Defence, are suing a number of news organisations fighting misinformation, including the BBC, Washington Post, Associated Press and Reuters.

They claim that these outlets have censored “alternative Covid narratives”, and that they have been “censored, de-monetised, demoted, throttled, shadow-banned, and/or excluded entirely from platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn”.

Kennedy’s group has opted to bring the case in the jurisdiction of ultra-conservative Texas judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who recently ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration had erred by authorising the abortion pill, mifepristone. DM/MC

Kerry Cullinan is deputy editor of the Geneva-based Health Policy Watch.