BIONTECH FOUNDER UGUR SAHIN REFUTES RUMORS THAT HE HAD NOT BEEN VACCINATED

Sun 12 December 2021:

After false reports surfaced that he had not been vaccinated, BioNTech founder and CEO Ugur Sahin released a photo of himself receiving a Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

CLAIM: Video shows that the CEO of BioNTech, Dr. Ugur Sahin, will not take the COVID-19 vaccine that his firm developed with Pfizer.

THE FACTS: Social media posts are misrepresenting an interview that Sahin gave in December 2020. He received the vaccine the next month, a company spokesperson confirmed. Social media users shared the year-old interview from the news outlet Deutsche Welle to erroneously claim that the CEO of the German biotechnology firm, which developed a COVID-19 vaccine with Pfizer, won’t receive the vaccine.

“Dr Ugur Sahin CEO of BioNTech and inventor of the BIO N TECH Pfizer jab refuses to take the jab for safety reasons,” stated one widely shared tweet that cited the December 2020 video.

But that interview took place early on, just as the vaccine rollout began. Answering a question about why he was not yet vaccinated, Sahin said that he was “legally not allowed to take the vaccine at the moment” and later explained that he was not in a priority group at that time to receive the vaccine. Sahin also said it was “more important for us that our coworkers and partners get vaccinated.

Our goal is to produce more than 1.3 billion doses in 2021, and that can only be done if we can really continue to work 24/7, without any interruption, and we need to ensure that we protect the coworkers and our team members from COVID-19 infection because that would mean interruption and delay.”

“Dr Ugur Sahin CEO of BioNTech and inventor of the BIO N TECH Pfizer jab refuses to take the jab for safety reasons,” stated one widely shared tweet that cited the December 2020 video.

A BioNTech spokesperson told The Associated Press that the claims about Sahin’s vaccination status were “wrong” and that he received his first two doses in early 2021. The spokesperson pointed to an interview that Sahin did with The Times of London in September, in which the CEO said he and his wife — Özlem Türeci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer — “got our shots at the end of January this year.”

Released a photo

Sahin shared the photo on LinkedIn, claiming that he and his wife had received all three Pfizer vaccine shots (two regular shots plus the booster).

The BioNTech founder explained that a long-lost friend who had not been vaccinated was battling COVID-19 in the hospital. This reminded Sahin of the importance of assisting people in overcoming their fears of vaccination.

“Fear is hard to combat with facts and figures. Sometimes fear can be better defeated by sharing personal experiences. Therefore, to reach out to those who are struggling personally with their fears, I would like to share a picture showing my COVID-19 vaccination in early 2021,” Sahin said in his LinkedIn post.

(with AP / Sputnik)

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