Social media users have shared online content claiming that Kamala Harris, the elected vice president,’s vaccination COVID-19 was counterfeit. This statement is false.
Examples of video messages that make this claim can be seen here and here.
Elected Vice President Kamala Harris received a COVID-19 vaccination on live television on 28 December 2020 in an effort to increase public confidence in vaccinations (here).
Harris, the first black and Asian-American vice president, received the Moderna Inc vaccine at a medical center in predominantly Black southeast of Washington (here).
The reports contain a video of a Harris receiving the vaccine from a nurse. Footage of this moment can be seen by Reuters here and C-SPAN here.
A photo of Reuters from Harris who received the vaccine can be seen here.
Comments on the Facebook posts include: “Fake they know better than to take it !!!!!”, “I saw no needle on it” and “People are so stupid that they think she’s really vaccinated! So sad … “
Some of the videos contain a zoomed-in photo of Harris’ arm, which is visible here at 0:22. The purpose of this is unclear.
In the zoomed-in segment, the nurse can slap the cap on the syringe after the vaccine has been administered. The nurse does this with one hand by pressing the cap against the arm of the chair on which Harris sits, as her left hand holds pressure on Harris’ arm.
Moderna did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request to confirm that this was the type of needle used on Harris.
The exposed needle can be seen at the point 0:20 here . Several photos from Getty Images show the needle in Harris’ arm here, here and here.
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that Kamala Harris’s vaccination was fake or staged.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.