Social media users share reports claiming one of the first nurses in Alabama to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was found dead. This claim is false: Alabama Public Health contacted all hospitals in the state that administered the COVID-19 vaccine and confirmed that no vaccine recipients were dead.
The posts (here, here, here, here) show screenshots of a Facebook chat that says, ‘Omg, they just found my aunt dead! She was one of the nurses who got the covid vaccine at her job today, and they just found her dead. A Facebook message that says, ‘My aunt, the nurse who died hours after receiving the covid vaccine, is from Alabama. “Captions on the posts include:” Everyone should ask for the Alabama nurse who passed away 8-10 hours after the first dose. ” and a nurse in Alabama is about dead. 8-10 hours after receiving her C-19 Vax. ”
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine became available in the United States on December 14, as the death toll from the coronavirus reached 300,000 (here). Initial doses were set aside for doctors, nurses, other frontline medical workers, residents and staff of nursing homes, and some U.S. government officials (here, here).
The Alabama Department of Public Health (APHD) has published (here) a statement explaining that they have contacted all hospitals in the state where the COVID-19 vaccine was administered to confirm that the allegations contained in the Facebook messages were made, were false: On December 15, Facebook reported a death in Alabama at a recipient of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The Department of Public Health in Alabama (ADPH) has issued all hospitals in the state that administered the COVID-19 vaccine, confirming that there were no deaths among recipients.”
VERDICT
Untrue. The Alabama Department of Public Health has contacted all hospitals that have administered COVID-19 vaccines in the state and found no reports of vaccine-related deaths.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.