PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2020-04-10 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did 7 Children Die in Senegal from COVID-19 Vaccine? (de)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • In April 2020, a rumor started to circulate on social media holding that seven children in Senegal had died after being administered a COVID-19 coronavirus disease vaccine. There is no truth to this rumor. Seven children did not die in Senegal in April 2020 after they were administered a vaccine for COVID-19. A spokeswoman for Senegal’s health ministry told the AFP news site that these claims were fake news. The spokesperson said: This rumor was largely based on a piece of footage from March that showed a somewhat chaotic scene in Senegal. One version of the video that was widely circulated on social media contained narration from a man speaking in French. In that video, the narrator says: There is a big scandal in Senegal. There is a guy who came into a house to get kids vaccinated for coronavirus. He vaccinated seven children who died on the spot. However, this is not the original audio that accompanied this footage. The French news outlet Les Observateurs France 24 found a version of the video in Wolof, the most common language in Senegal, and found that while the Wolof narration also mentioned a COVID-19 vaccine, the claim about seven dead children was absent. In the Wolof version, the narrator says: This version of events matches up with news stories from local Senegal publications. On March 26, the website Senego reported that two people were arrested in the country after they claimed to have a vaccine for COVID-19. The AFP confirmed with local police that a man (not two men) was briefly arrested. However, this incident appears to have been the result of a misunderstanding. The man was apparently selling cosmetics door-to-door, but he was also wearing a health ministry T-shirt. When the word coronavirus was mentioned, people started to panic, thinking that he was there to forcibly administer vaccines. A spokeswoman for the Senegal health ministry told the AFP: A spokesperson for the armed forces ministry said that no medical equipment was found at the scene, adding: France 24 managed to contact the woman living in the house where this fiasco took place. Alassane Mbodji told the news outlet that everything that is said on social networks is false. No one died of any vaccine. Our children are healthy. Mbodji explained: To sum up: The claim that seven children died after being administered a vaccine for COVID-19 is false. This rumor is largely based on video showing a somewhat chaotic scene in Senegal involving a door-to-door salesman, a health ministry T-shirt, and growing concern about the COVID-19 pandemic. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url