"Dr Sucharit Bhakdi says that the tuberculosis bacteria is in the Covid-19 vaccine..it was deliberately inserted by Pfizer for depopulation purposes," reads a Malay-language Facebook post shared on February 18, 2026.
"The Ministry of Health Malaysia is the biggest liar," the post goes on to say.
The post cites retired microbiologist Sucharit Bhakdi, a former professor at Germany's Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz who has repeatedly spread false claims about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bhakdi had previously predicted that the Covid-19 jabs would cause "an upsurge of tuberculosis worldwide, especially in those countries where the tuberculosis bacterium has been lying dormant in the bodies of these people".
His claim resurfaced in a January 2026 Substack post, linked to claims that messenger RNA vaccines such as Pfizer's Covid-19 shot damage the body's immune system -- a narrative AFP has repeatedly debunked.
The claim also spread elsewhere on Facebook after Malaysia logged more than 3,000 tuberculosis infections since January 2026 (archived link).
The disease spreads through the air, and Malaysian health authorities urged the public to wear masks and seek medical attention if they experienced prolonged coughing (archived link).
Tuberculosis has been present in the Southeast Asian country since the early 20th century and its Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine has been administered to newborns since 1961 (archived here and here).
But the disease is not present in the...
"Dr Sucharit Bhakdi says that the tuberculosis bacteria is in the Covid-19 vaccine..it was deliberately inserted by Pfizer for depopulation purposes," reads a Malay-language Facebook post shared o...