Claim: A viral WhatsApp message states that all those who took the COVID-19 vaccine will die in two years.
This claim is false and misleading as Nobel Laureate, Professor Luc Montagnier did not say categorically that all individuals who receive the COVID-19 vaccine will die in two years.
Full Text
Purveyors of fear and conspiracy theories about the imaginary dangers of COVID-19 vaccines have refused to back down even as governments and health-focused civil society organisations strive to ensure that many individuals take the COVID-19 vaccine for their protection.
Recently, a viral WhatsApp message claims that everyone who takes the COVID-19 vaccine will die in two years. The statement attributed to an epidemiologist, Professor Montagnier, claims “there is no hope, and no possible treatment for those who have been vaccinated already.”
The message also claims that all individuals who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine will “all die from antibody dependent enhancement.” A link to Dr. Montagnier’s Wiki page was also shared in the viral message.
Verification
Dubawa clicked on the website link in the WhatsApp message and was redirected to a news story on LifeSiteNews. The website claims it is a non-profit Internet service “dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family.” It reports on developments in the United States, Canada, and around the world and was originally a publication by Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), a Canadian national pro-life organisation.
The news was published by LifeSiteNews on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. It was reported that Dr. Montagnier made this claim in a French interview which was translated and published by RAiR Foundation, USA on May 18, 2021.
This claim has gone viral across the world and it was still received from a Nigerian contact by this writer on May 30, 2021. It has also been shared on numerous WhatsApp groups in Nigeria.
Who is Dr. Luc Montagnier
Dr. Luc Montagnier is a French virologist and Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine, who was recognized (along with two others) for his contribution to the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2008. However, he has been in the news for promoting several controversial claims about vaccinations, homeopathy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Montagnier has become so controversial that in 2017, over a hundred academic scientists condemned his promotion of controversial claims in an open letter.
Dr. Montagnier has claimed in an interview with “Pourquoi Doctor” then on the CNews site in 2020 that coronavirus was man made (in a laboratory) and that it contains genetic material from HIV. The interview has now been deleted. He has also claimed that the administered COVID-19 vaccines are what is creating the different variants of the disease.
In the past, he has claimed that water has memory, a good immune system could prevent people from contracting HIV and was against the French Government’s move to make some vaccines compulsory.
Verification
While Dr. Luc Montagnier is clearly against COVID-19 vaccines, a translated two and half minutes video of his interview on Rumble as well as a translation of the full interview on Planet360 did not contain any specific information about people dying in two years.
Dr. Montagnier, however, condemned COVID-19 vaccines in the interview, claiming that the vaccines are responsible for the increasing variants of the COVID-19 virus.
The World Health Organisation has confirmed the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines as well as several recognised scientists and institutions the world over, such as the John Hopkins Medicine Centre in the United States, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The World Health Organisation has also condemned Dr. Montagnier’s claim that the vaccines are causing new variants of COVID-19, stating that there is no evidence that this is true.
Several national and international fact-checking organisations like India Today, Politifact, APnews, Deccan Herald have also fact-checked this claim with the verdict that Dr. Montagnier did not say that individuals who take the COVID-19 vaccine would die in two years.
LifeSiteNews has also added a corrigendum to the story on May 27, 2021, stating that they did not publish any comment saying Montagnier claims individuals who are vaccinated would die in two years and that this version of his interview emanated only on social media. LifeSiteNews claims it only reported what Dr. Montagnier said in the interview about vaccines (being a medical and scientific error), and that several scientists have rejected his claims.
Conclusion
Dr. Luc Montagnier is controversial and has authored a few hoaxes about COVID-19. He is also against the COVID-19 vaccine, but he did not say that all those who take the COVID-19 vaccine would die two years after taking the vaccine.
Great fact checking work