Turku residents seeing Covid conspiracy pamphlets | Yle Uutiset | yle.fi – YLE News
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Short pamphlets urging people to avoid using masks have started appearing in residential mailboxes in the southwestern Finnish city of Turku. The text also tells readers that they should not get a vaccine inoculation against the coronavirus.
“Finland has freedom of speech, and you can say almost anything. Despite this, it is unfortunate that information like this is distributed,” says Mikko Pietilä, Chief Medical Officer of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland.
The pamphlet is aimed at convincing readers that the coronavirus is a scam and part of a conspiracy intended to hamper people’s fundamental rights. They started appearing in mailboxes around Christmas.
Pietilä says he also received one a couple of weeks ago.
“I glanced through it, snorted and stuck it in the paper recycling box.”
According to Pietilä, the pamphlets have been distributed quite widely in different parts of Turku, both in the city centre and in the suburbs.
Seen elsewhere
Professor Mika Salminen, Director of Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL, says that the same pamphlet has also been distributed elsewhere in Finland.
“We are aware of this. This is a pure disinformation campaign and unfortunate,” he told Yle.
It is not known exactly how widely spread the phenomenon is. What seems to have been the same pamphlet was distributed in Porvoo as early as mid-December and reported then by the regional newspaper Uusimaa.
Story continues after the photo.
A wide variety of conspiracy theories have revolved around coronavirus vaccines.
Image:
AFP
Pietilä says that the Hospital District of Southwest Finland has not approached the police to find out who disseminated the disinformation.
“I’m not a lawyer, but it’s hard to see any crime here,” he notes.
Pietilä hopes that the public will just ignore the pamphlet and the conspiracy theories it promotes.
“I think recycling is a good thing. The paper recycling bin is definitely the right place for them,” says Pietilä.
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