A video shared on Facebook purports to show numerous clips of people “dropping suddenly,” loosely suggesting the COVID-19 vaccine had been the cause.

Facebook/Screenshot

Verdict: False

The majority of clips included in the one-minute video pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic. Two later clips, from 2020 and 2021 respectively, are not tied to the vaccine.

Fact Check:

Fainting following vaccination is possible and tends to be triggered by pain or anxiety, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s website. Studies have suggested side effects from the vaccine were linked to greater antibody response to the virus, CNN reported.

The Facebook video, shared 11,000 times, purports to show multiple people “dropping suddenly” due to the COVID-19 vaccine. “Why are people ‘dropping’ suddenly?” the video’s caption reads.

The claim is false. The majority of the clips included in the one-minute video pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic, Lead Stories reported. Four instances of fainting involving various U.S. and foreign leaders occurred between 2013 and 2017, the outlet indicated.

Former Visiting Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole collapsed during a press conference in Turkey in 2013 and former Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva collapsed while giving a speech to the military in 2014.

Similarly, former U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. James Martin Jr. collapsed during a 2016 news conference at the Pentagon and former Minnesota Democratic Mayor Mark Dayton collapsed in the middle of delivering a speech in 2017. (RELATED: Did The UK Ban COVID-19 Boosters For People Under 50?)

Two other examples of people collapsing can be traced to 2020 and 2021, according to the outlet. An employee from the British supermarket chain Asda collapsed in front of then-Prince Charles in July 2020, while the head of the Danish Medicines Agency Tanja Erichsen collapsed during an April 2021 conference focused on the country’s decision to stop using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

“Tanja Lund Erichsen was not vaccinated at the time of the press conference, since her age group had not yet been offered the vaccine according to the Danish vaccination programme,” a spokesperson for the Danish Medicines Agency told Check Your Fact via email. “Tanja Lund Erichsen was back on her feet shortly after the incident and has been alive and well ever since.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not issue an emergency use authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccine until December 2020, according to a press release from the agency.

COVID-19 vaccinations have been the subject of misinformation since their introduction in December 2020. Check Your Fact recently debunked a claim suggesting Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said COVID-19 deaths were the result of “natural selection.”