FACT CHECK: Did Mariah Carey Fake Her COVID-19 Vaccination?
A post shared on Facebook claims singer Mariah Carey “faked” getting her COVID-19 vaccination.
Verdict: False
There is no indication Carey “faked” her COVID-19 vaccination. Retractable safety needles are routinely used when administering medication to help prevent accidental needlestick injuries.
Fact Check:
Multiple celebrities have posted videos or photos of themselves receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on social media. Carey, an American singer and songwriter, posted a video of herself receiving the jab on Instagram April 3 with the caption saying, “Vaccine side effect: G6.”
View this post on Instagram
Since Carey posted the video, some social media users have shared screen grabs along with claims she “faked” her vaccination.
“Wow, even Mariah Carey faked getting the V,” reads one such post. “Go watch the video yourself on her Twitter feed. Here is a screenshot I took from the video. They inserted a fake needle (it retracts into the tube) and as you can see here when they pull it out, no needle.”
While the video Carey posted does appear to show the needle retracting into the syringe after the shot was administered, there is no indication the singer “faked” her COVID-19 vaccination. In the video, the needle can be seen entering her arm. The health care work seems to have used a retractable safety syringe to administer the vaccine.
The needles in retractable safety syringes retract inside the syringes after the medication has been delivered to help prevent accidental needlesticks, according to Vice. At the beginning of Carey’s video, a health care worker can be heard explaining the retractable needle’s mechanism, saying, “When you push this all the way, the needle will retract back.”
The health care worker’s explanation in the video lines up with an animation on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) website that demonstrates how retractable needles work. “As seen in this animation, after the needle is used, an extra push on the plunger retracts the needle into the syringe, removing the hazard of needle exposure,” OSHA explains next to the animation.
Videos demonstrating how they work can also be found on YouTube. (RELATED: Did Anthony Hopkins Fake His COVID-19 Vaccination?)
“The video appears to show a person getting vaccinated in the ordinary fashion,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, in an email to Check Your Fact. “There’s nothing suspicious about it, that’s what vaccinations look like.”
Similar claims suggesting that people who received their COVID-19 vaccinations with a retractable needle faked their inoculation have been previously debunked by Reuters and Full Fact.
A spokesperson for Carey did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.
