Are Doctors Encouraging COVID-19 Vaccine Injections on the Penis?

Claims are circulating that doctors are encouraging the COVID-19 vaccine to be injected on the penis.

DOCTORS Encourage Covid-19 Vaccine Injections IN PENIS. 😟🤦‍♂️
Based On Findings From A University Of California Study Involving 1,500 Men Vaccinated pic.twitter.com/wgCgq25B0T

— 𝓢𝓪𝓶 𝓢𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓿 🇺🇸 National Security Advisor (@SamSenev) January 3, 2021

Background

COVID-19 continues to disrupt our lives as we enter the new year with the infection rates and death tolls rising as well as several countries such as the United Kingdom, going back to lockdown.

The pandemic has brought about a flood of information and misconceptions with many having no proven scientific basis. Since the announcement of the availability of vaccines by companies such as Pfizer and Astra Zeneca, a lot of speculation and recommendations have been shared on social media.

Verification

A search on the University of California publications page shows no such research exists. The image shared in the tweet highlighted above is a cropped version of a tweet that appeared earlier in December claiming it was reported on CNN.

Who’s going first? 🤡 pic.twitter.com/nx2GyGzcMg

— SANA (@sanaonline__) January 1, 2021

The tweet shows the official CNN logo and the top bar as it appears on a mobile device.  The spelling of the word “Covid-19”, however, makes the article suspicious. A search of all COVID-19 related information on the CNN website shows that the media house spells the word using a capital C. The article also does not have a byline, author and upload date as is the case with all CNN articles.

Searching the article by the heading provides no such results. A reverse search on the image on TinEye shows the man in the picture to be Dr Mohitkumar Ardeshana, a physician at Claremont Medical Center in California.

The second image showing male genitalia is an illustrated guide for a penile self-injection by Saint Luke’s Health System.

Verdict

The claim that doctors have encouraged Covid-19 vaccine injections to be administered through the penis is therefore FALSE.