AS vaccines continue to be rolled out to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, several false claims are being spread to misinform and discourage people from taking them.

In Nigeria, about 166, 000 people have been infected with the virus and over 2, 000 deaths reported by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). However, the increasing spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation has become a stumbling block to the fight against the virus, thereby discouraging people, especially those in the rural areas, from taking the vaccine doses.

Social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter have become tools that are being used to spread misinformation about the virus and the vaccines that have been developed to combat it.

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Claim of vaccine leading to death

Top among COVID-19 misinformation is the claim that vaccines reduce the lifespan of people who take them. For example, a Whatsapp message which went viral in March 2021 claimed that people below 50 years of age who took the vaccine were expected to die within five to 10 years while those above 70 would die within two to three years.

The viral message attributed to one Irish Professor Dolores Cahill also claimed the vaccine had the capacity to make people impotent.

Verification

Keyword search of the claim was carried out and the researcher did not find the claims shared elsewhere online apart from WhatsApp. However, the researcher found several claims made by the same professor, which were fact-checked by The Journal and found to be untrue and misleading.

Dr. Cahil is a professor of Translational Science at the University College Dublin’s School of Medicine, who chaired the Eurosceptic Irish Freedom Party, a political party that advocates Irish withdrawal from the European Union. She has, however, resigned as the chair of the Irish freedom.

Vaccine is a weapon to depopulate Africa claim

Yet another COVID-19 misinformation which is widespread is the claim that the vaccine is a weapon to depopulate Africa. This originated via a six-minute video clip, where Robert Young, an American naturopathic practitioner, stressed the need to reduce the global population starting from Africa.

In the video that went viral, Young, who was answering questions from a group of panelists, said there was a need to reduce the growing global population, starting from Africa.

“For the purpose of sterilisation and population control, there are too many people on the planet we need to get rid of in the words of Bill Gates, at least three billion people need to die. So we will just start off in Africa. We will start doing our research there and we will eliminate most of the Africans because they are deplorable, they are worthless, they are not part of this world economy so they have their rights taken away and they are suppressed and experimented,” he said in the video.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-misinformation-may-slow-the-fight-against-the-deadly-covid-19-in-nigeria/