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| - Fact Check: These officials posing for Covid-19 vaccine is not what it looks like
A video in which a man and a woman are seen posing for vaccination pictures is circulating on social media with the claim that officials in Karnataka's Tumkur are faking it for the cameras while pretending to take Covid-19 vaccines.
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India Today Fact Check
The officials posed for vaccination on request from the media. They were later vaccinated on the same day as confirmed by several government sources.
A video in which a man and a woman are seen posing for vaccination pictures is circulating on social media with the claim that officials in Karnataka’s Tumkur are faking it for the cameras while pretending to take Covid-19 vaccines. The 43-second video also shows a nurse posing as if she’s administering injection to the duo.
The nationwide Covid-19 vaccination of priority groups began in India on January 16. According to the Union health ministry, close to one million healthworkers have already received the shots.
“In Tumkur District officials fake it before camera, pretending to take Covid Vaccine, why this fake promotion? Where there is BJP there is Fraud,” reads one such caption along with the video.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The officials in the video are Tumakuru district health officer (DHO) Nagendrappa and principal of district health coaching centre Dr Rajani M. The officials posed on request from the media. The Tumakaru district magistrate confirmed that they were later vaccinated on the same day.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of keyword search, we found a news report published on January 16 on the website of Deccan Herald’s Kannada daily “Prajavani”. The report carried a picture of the same man seen in the video taking a jab.
The picture caption in Kannada translates to, “DHO Nagendrappa getting vaccinated at Tumkur District Hospital”.
We then reached out to Rakesh Kumar, the district magistrate of Tumakuru district.
Rubbishing the viral claim, Kumar said, “The officials you see in the video did take the vaccine. The vaccination process that day was delayed due to technical reasons. For instance, the Co-Win application was not automatically allotting the sessions to registered candidates and officials had to do it manually. But the media could not wait till the official vaccination process began. That’s why the officials posed in that way. Later, all of them were vaccinated. We have also submitted a report on the matter to authorities concerned.
Channabasappa K, the additional deputy commissioner as well as additional district magistrate of Tumakuru, also confirmed that the viral claim is misleading.
“The claim that the district health officials faked the vaccination is not true. When I conducted an inquiry, it was revealed that due to technical issues with the Co-Win application, the vaccination process was delayed. However, since the media was in a hurry to leave, the officials posed for a few clicks. They were later vaccinated on the same day,” Channabasappa confirmed.
We also spoke to Tumakuru DHO Nagendrappa, the man seen in the viral video.
Speaking to AFWA, Nagendrappa said, “According to the Co-Win application, our date of taking the first shot was not January 16. However, we were later informed to pre-pone the date to January 16, the first day of the vaccination drive. So, we had to re-register and the process got delayed. However, the media was in a hurry to leave after covering our vaccination. So, we finally decided to pose for some pictures.”
AFWA also received a clarification note by Dr Rajani M, principal of the district health coaching centre and the woman seen in the viral video. The note with her letterhead was written to the district information officer confirming that she took the Covishield shot on January 16.
Dr Rajani also submitted a copy of her jab certificate. In this, it can be seen that she took the Covishield vaccine on January 16, 2020, from the Tumakuru district hospital.
AFWA then spoke to Rangaraju, reporter of Kannada daily “Vartha Bharati” who was present at the Tumakuru district hospital on January 16.
“I was among the media personnel in the same room at Tumakuru district hospital where the video in question was shot. The media had no time to wait till the official process started. We asked the officials to pose for us so we could leave at the earliest. Unfortunately, someone shot the video and that went viral with misleading claims,” Rangaraju said.
India Today stringer at Tumakuru, Devaprakash, was also present at the hospital at that time. He too confirmed that the officials posed on request from the media and they later got vaccinated.
Hence, it is clear that the viral video only shows the district officials posing for the media ahead of the official vaccination drive.
(With inputs from Nagarjun Dwarakanath in Bengaluru)
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