Vaccines

  • Four recurring claims in 2022

    Information disorder is characterised by misinformation (false or misleading content shared without intent), disinformation (false or misleading content shared with intent), and Malinformation (true content manipulated, amplified and shared in the wrong context). 

    Whether the information is true, false, or misleading, some claims have become known for their ability to reappear, change form, context, and location. 

    Here are some of such claims DUBAWA encountered in 2022. 

    1. Politicians offering grants 

    From Bola Tinubu offering N25,000 to Yemi Osibanjo offering N33,000 grants, scammers continue to seek to defraud Nigerians with promises of grants from politicians. 

    In 2021, DUBAWA fact-checked a similar claim that Mr Tinubu was offering N19,800 grants to Nigerians which turned out to be a hoax. 

    Photo credit: Google images
    1. Sucking a woman’s breast reduces her risk of breast cancer

    In 2021, DUBAWA verified the claim that the sucking of breasts, especially by spouses or partners, can reduce the chances of breast cancer.

    During cancer awareness on October 22, this assertion still resurfaced in conversations online, such as on Twitter and Facebook.  

    This claim is false. We discovered that it is women breastfeeding their babies that can reduce their chances of getting breast cancer because of the hormones stimulated by such action, not a partner sucking the woman’s breast.

    Image of a mother breastfeeding her baby. Photo credit: Google image. 
    1. COVID-19 vaccines spark HIV

    In August 2022, DUBAWA verified a claim linking the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to COVID-19 and smallpox vaccines. 

    According to the viral WhatsApp message containing the claim, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) admitted to HIV being part of the COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings reveal this is false and baseless. 

    DUBAWA found that Reuters had earlier in February fact-checked similar claims. 

    Image of a vaccine. Photo credit: Reuters 
    1. DIY pregnancy test with urine and salt/toothpaste 

    In 2019, DUBAWA verified a claim that women could simply run a pregnancy test themselves at home with salt or toothpaste. This method, they say, is the most effective and easiest way of testing for pregnancy.

    In 2022 this claim resurfaced in an Instagram reel shared with us for verification. In this version, the Instagram user @momsinlabour claimed that adding two teaspoons of salt in early morning urine is used to test for pregnancy.

    Both claims are, however, false as they have no medical basis. 

    Photo credit: Google image. 
  • Is there going to be a chip inserted in humans as part of COVID-19 vaccination? No!

    A viral video on social media with a message claims there is a warning against coronavirus microchip vaccines

    FALSE

    Full Text

    Coronavirus, which surfaced in Wuhan China in December 2019 has  on Friday September 25, 2020, infected 32,416,537 people globally, 987,743 deaths and 23,932,423 recoveries.

    As  the global pandemic lingers, the search for a vaccine continues while the spread of  misinformation also continues on vaccine development.

    According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are currently over 169 COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development, with 26 of these already in the human trial phase. WHO is working in collaboration with scientists, businesses, and global health organisations through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, to speed up the pandemic response. 

    In August, 2020, a video , accompanied with a message warning Christians not to take the COVID-19 vaccine, went viral. In this video, the man who claims to be the project lead said he was part of the team that developed a microchip which uses lithium and can be inserted in the forehead or hand. 

    In this seven minutes, 54 seconds video, the speaker claims over a million dollars of taxpayers money was spent on this chip but no one should take it as it is a sign of the beast according to the bible in Revelation 13 verse 16.

    The message that accompanied the video reads, “A project engineer who made the microchip that will soon be implemented along with the covid vaccine WARNS US NOT TO TAKE IT. Please listen carefully to  his story and his  message in this video.. After watching,  please share also to save lives. God bless!”

    “What i want to tell you is that this is real, the microchip is real, credit cards are failing, they can be counterfeited, smart cards can be counterfeited, they can be stolen, they can be lost, all kinds of things can happen to a card but you cannot lose your hand. Very quickly, they are going to move to this thing in the hand and i tell you as a christian, you cannot take this. No matter what anybody says, God says you cannot take it.”

    Screenshot of the viral message

    Verification

    A quick look at the video showed it is an old video. Dubawa discovered that while the message that accompanied the video links the chip with COVID-19, the speaker did not at any point in the video say the chip was meant for COVID-19 vaccine or mention coronavirus or COVID-19.

    A closer look at the video showed the video had been altered as it had several jump cuts with some part of the speaker’s speech cut out and that of the interpreter totally cut off. Further, at 7minutes 17seconds into the clip, the audience behind the speaker and interpreter disappeared. Also, the flower on the pulpit in front of the speaker disappeared. 

    Dubawa went ahead to conduct a keyword search which produced a fact Check by Reuters on coronavirus and microchip.

    Screenshot of Reuters Fact check.

    Dubawa also conducted a google reverse image search of screenshots from the video. This search produced different results dated as far back as 2002.

    The search led to a site called BITCHUTE which shared the video with the title “the microchip and mark of the beast”. The video which had gotten 274 views and 3 likes on this website was published August 11, 2020.

    Screenshot of Bitchute’s post.

    Another result of this image search led to a website called healthymoneyvine.com which had different health related contents including the video warning against vaccine collection.

    Screenshots of Healthymoneyvine’s page.

    Another result led to a youtube page by David WhiteHeart with the title “Carl Sanders, Microchip Engineer, talks about marks of the beast implant.” 

    This post made on August 11, 2020 has 411 views, 4 comments and 12 likes so far. 

    Screenshot of David Whitehead’s post.

    Another youtube post by Tigidig with the caption “Microchip was already existed, is this the sign of end times in the bible?”, was published August 25,2020 with 377 views and two comments.

    However, in this post, the video was 3:26secs, unlike the other posts where the video was 7:54 seconds long.

    Another youtube post made in May 2020, by Micheal Zion indicated that the man who invented Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchip speaks out. This particular video which is the longest at 29minutes has 3116 views and 96 likes.

    Screenshot of Micheal Zion’s youtube post.

    The search also produced an article published in 2002 by taddlecreekmag.com tagged the video a testimonial of Carl Sanders, the inventor of microchip.

    Screenshot of Taddlecreed”s article.

    Conclusion

    A careful study of the video and the above highlighted red flags shows there is no connection between the content of the video and coronavirus. Neither has there been any move to make a chip associated vaccine, judging from efforts on vaccines compiled by the WHO. This makes the claim false and misleading. 

  • HPV is Not the African-gown killer its made to be…

    A post appeared on the 24th September on Facebook with his picture below, warning readers to be aware of a new virus… which is worse than HIV…and one could be infected with it through sex.

    Verification

    Image verification tools revealed that these pictures were of Dede Koswara; they began making rounds after an internet documentation of him in November 2007. Platforms such as Dailymail UK reported this after his death in 2017. But it seems we have not seen the last of this story as another version surfaces 2 years post mortem.

    What is HPV?

    This rare disease- tree man syndrome, rightly known as Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, is named after the physicians who first documented it, Felix Lewandowsky and Wilhelm Lutz. It is a very common STI communicable through skin to skin contact with has over 100 varieties. The more benign versions simply go away, but there are serious cases leading to genital warts and cancer.

    Is this a “new virus discovered in Africa”?

    While the Facebook claim asserts that the image depicts a “new virus discovered in Africa”, it is quite the contrary. The dermatologist Felix Lewandowsky discovered the disease in 1922. The assertion that it was first discovered in Africa is also questionable as both experts that documented the disease were German. We surmise that the disease was discovered there or perhaps in Europe first (findings do not empirically state country of origin).

    HPV Prevalence & Notable symptoms

    The individual has discoloured (paler) areas of skin infection, uncontrolled wart growths on the skin resembling the back of trees and scales. Reports confirm that Dede had these infections as the photo shows; eventually dying at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung in Indonesia due to more complications.

    There are other cases of HPV prevalence save Dede in. Also, this is not the first time we have heard of HPV. It gained popularity in recent decades because of its nasty habit to infect the cervix– resulting in cervical cancer. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in Nigeria with 14,943 cases occurring every year.  In males, HPV can also lead to penile cancer; but more commonly resulting in genital warts.

    Can you get HPV even with protected sex

    You can contract HPV through skin to skin contact; hence, the advent of contraction amid contraception exists. Still, health authorities highly recommend the usage of contraception during intercourse; studies suggest this too. More so, there exists several HPV vaccination that helps prevention; as well as guidelines for prevention and safety around STIs in general.

    Nonetheless, there is no mention in scientific research that condoms are only 60% effective in protecting against HPV, HIV or indeed other diseases. Contrary, findings suggest proper usage of condoms will aid in reducing the chances of an STI- though not 100% safe.

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