CLAIM: People have fallen seriously ill after COVID-19 vaccinations
SOURCE: Viral WhatsApp message
RATING: False. The message is a hoax and uses an old picture from West Africa
A message circulating on WhatsApp claims to show people being treated for serious illness following COVID-19 vaccinations.
This is false.
The picture in the message is in fact from Guinea. A reverse image search shows that the picture was posted by a Guinean website in March 2020. It shows people being treated in a hospital in Guinea, following a violent government crackdown on protests in the West African country.
It has nothing to do with Zimbabwe, and neither does it have anything to do with COVID-19 vaccines.
A voice note accompanying the picture claims vaccines clog blood vessels. The person in the voice note then urges people to spread the message widely and warn people against taking the COVID-19 vaccine, as “this injection is killing people”.
No such incidents have been reported, according to the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Side effects
While vaccines may have side effects, most of these are mild and not deadly.
A report published in October 2020 by The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, said the tests on the Sinopharm vaccine, which is being used in Zimbabwe, showed that “all adverse events were mild or moderate in severity.”
The Ministry of Health also says to expect only mild side effects.
Conclusion
A viral picture and voice note claiming people have fallen ill after taking the COVID-19 vaccine is a hoax. No reports of serious side effects have been reported. The picture in the message is of an unrelated violence incident in Guinea, West Africa.
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