FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show Nigerian Students Jumping From A School Building To Avoid Taking COVID-19 Vaccines?
A video shared on Instagram allegedly shows Nigerian students jumping from the second floor of a school building to avoid receiving a school-mandated COVID-19 vaccine.
View this post on Instagram
Verdict: False
Check Your Fact found that the video predates the coronavirus pandemic. It appears to show a May 2019 incident involving a tear gas canister at a Nigerian school.
Fact Check:
In the Instagram video, young people can be seen seemingly fleeing a building, with some jumping from a walkway on the building’s second floor. The caption attempts to suggest that the video shows Nigerian students escaping the school to avoid receiving a mandated COVID-19 vaccination.
“Students in Nigeria Running Away in Fear and Desperately Jumping From School Building Trying To Avoid Taking Covid Vaccine That was Enforced in Their School,” reads the caption. “Students are aware this vaccine is deadly and is being used to kill black people off.”
Contrary to the post’s claim, the video predates the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. Check Your Fact found that the video has been posted online since at least May 2019, when African outlets published articles about an incident involving a tear gas canister at a school in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. For instance, Pulse.com.gh included the video in a May 26, 2019, article titled “Pandemonium breaks out as Student detonates teargas in school” that reported students fled the school after a student allegedly opened a tear gas canister in a classroom.
BBC News Pidgin and the Nigerian outlet The Guardian also reported on the incident. (RELATED: Does This Video Show Thailand’s Health Minister Receiving The COVID-19 Vaccine?)
Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control tweeted on Feb. 8 that there are “not yet” COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
Q: Is the #COVID19 vaccine in Nigeria?
A: Not yet. @NigeriaGov through @NphcdaNG is leading Nigeria’s efforts to access safe and effective vaccines.
Visit https://t.co/Zd6gvypc32 for more information on vaccines.
For more FAQs:https://t.co/y7LzA4AE6r#TakeResponsibility pic.twitter.com/QfQME1onHV
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) February 8, 2021
Nigerian officials said the country will receive COVID-19 vaccine doses this month through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, CNN reported. In Nigeria, 0ver 140,300 people have been sickened by the coronavirus and over 1,600 others have died from it at the time of publication, according to data displayed on the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center website.
