A tweet published on February 2 claims to show a video where kids in Africa are said to be running from forced vaccination.
Text on the tweet indicates that Africa is apparently in danger, as a video attached shows kids in school uniform running in panic, others jump off a storey building while screaming. The tweet appears to have gained a lot of traction as it has more than 100 retweets.
Background
COVID-19 vaccination programs have recently been rolled out in various countries, following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) listing of vaccines for emergency use. Most African countries expect to roll out vaccination programs in February. Kenyan, Nigerian, and South African authorities, for instance, declared that they would be expecting vaccines in February, while WHO’s Regional Director for Africa announced that COVAX will be allocating nearly 90 million doses to Africa later in February.
Misinformation on the COVID-19 vaccine has however been rife as Piga Firimbi previously found and checked claims such as the false advice that doctors are recommending vaccine injections on the penis, a misleading notice saying that people could start dying after taking the vaccines and misleading claims based on an image of a Remdesivir medicine that was alleged to be a COVID-19 vaccine specifically made for Africans.
Verification
The tweet that shares a video said to show African kids running from forced vaccination does not specify which country the incident took place. A Google image reverse search based on Invid’s frame by frame fragmentation of the video reveals that the video dates back to May 2019. The COVID-19 disease was however first reported in December 2019, and the first case in Africa was reported in February 2020.
The video was published on Nigerian news sites which indicate that the incident took place in a school located in the Port Harcourt area. An article on the BBC Pidgin site states that a student at the Community State Secondary School in Port Harcourt had carried a tear-gas canister which he is said to have released by mistake, hence causing the commotion. The incident took place on May 23, 2019, according to the BBC report.
Verdict
Claims that the video shows kids running from forced vaccination are FALSE.
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