Messages online claim that “mass vaccination” has begun in Senegal amid the coronavirus pandemic and 7 children who received the vaccine died instantly.
An example of the message can be seen below.
7 children were given the vaccination in Senegal and they were all dead on the spot. Nigerians please don’t accept this vaccination.
BREAKING: Mass vaccination for COVID-19 in Senegal (West Africa) was started yesterday (4/8) and the first 7 children who received it died on the spot.
The claims that Senegal has started vaccinating its citizens is demonstrably false simply because, at the time of writing, there is no vaccine for COVID-19. A search through the Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action (Ministere De La Sante Et De L’Action Sociale) website and its associated social media channels reveals no releases or statements about vaccinating citizens for coronavirus or COVID-19.
Some versions of this claim come attached to a video showing a crowd in Senegal with police vehicles visible. While we cannot determine conclusively what this video shows, some news websites in the country link it to unverified reports that two people had been arrested in Dalifort – a municipality in Senegal – for falsely claiming to be able to vaccinate against the coronavirus.
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However, there is no indication that they were working on behalf of the Senegal government or that anyone died as a result of the incident.
We reached out to the Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action who told us through a spokesperson that at the time of writing no vaccinations were being offered and that the story described in the messages above was “fake”.
As such, we rank the claim that 7 children died from mass COVID-19 vaccinations as false.