CLAIM: A viral meme claims that doctors have encouraged that the COVID-19 vaccine be administered in the penis for men.
The claim is false and misleading. Dubawa found the meme to be a hoax and all directives for the administration of COVID-19 vaccine are on the arm.
Full Text
With the progress made in the development and approval of COVID-19 vaccine comes a growing spread of misinformation around the vaccine.
Recently, a meme going viral on social media containing the image of a doctor and a sketch showing an injection in the penile area claims that doctors are recommending that the COVID-19 vaccine be administered in the penis for men.
This meme shared by some Facebook users claims doctors are discovering that for men, the penis allows for faster release of the vaccine into the body. This is attributed to findings from a University of California’s study involving 1500 men who received the vaccine.
The meme carries Cable News Network (CNN) logo to give an impression that it is a CNN report.
Verification
Dubawa conducted a search to find a CNN report on COVID-19 vaccine as it relates to being administered on the penis but found none.
Dubawa also observed clear differences in the format used in the meme and the format used by CNN news. While an ideal CNN report will have its logo, the names of different countries, its Live Tv redpoint icon, edition, the search icon, a contact icon where you can log in or create an account with CNN, and the three-line icon that allows you to open the menu, all on the menu bar, the meme on the other hand which tried to replicate CNN report contained only the CNN logo, Live Tv icon, the contact icon and the three-line open menu icon. The meme’s report also did not contain a byline or dateline.
Dubawa also tried to find the said study by a California university on COVID-19 vaccination in the penis but found none.
Dubawa, therefore, went ahead to do a google reverse image search for both images contained in the meme.
The reverse image search for the Doctor image led to the page of Biote Medical which identified the person in the image as Dr. Mohitkumar Ardeshana one of its practitioners who completed his Internal Medicine residency at Coney Island Hospital, Brooklyn, New York.
The image search for the second image however, did not yield any useful result.
According to the standing orders for administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), all vaccines for male and female of any body weight is to be administered in the deltoid muscle of the arm.
Similarly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Moderna vaccine which has been approved by te United State (US), Canada and Isreal, is to be applied in the deltoid muscle.
Conclusion
The claim that doctors are encouraging the administration of COVID-19 vaccine in the penis is false and misleading. Dubawa found the meme is a hoax as the meme was created by trying to clone the news organisation CNN and all administration directives for approved COVID-19 vaccine so far are for the deltoid muscle found in the arm.
