A Facebook user posted a video showing a nurse pretending to vaccinate Silence of the Lambs actor Anthony Hopkins and then throwing the liquid into the syringe.
The track had more than 900 shares at the time of publication and was endorsed: ‘Watch as the nurse injects the vaccine into the parking lot after pretending to inject actor Anthony Hopkins !! Tell me I did not just imagine it. ”(Here)
Social media users left comments such as’ why does Anthony Hopkins want to use the vaccine? Are we being lied to? “And” as if he were sitting in his car and jerking. Shame on him for being a part of this lie ”.
However, the video shows a real vaccination. The track was originally uploaded on Twitter and Instagram by Hopkins himself on January 28 in a message expressing his gratitude for the vaccine as a “light at the end of the tunnel (after one year of self-imposed quarantine)” (here and here).
The video was also shared by CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HMPC), where Hopkins received the vaccine in Los Angeles (here).
A spokesman for the center told Reuters in an email: ‘CHA HPMC is administering the COVID-19 vaccine using standard syringes offered by the LA Department of Public Health. Each syringe has been carefully prepared to ensure that it contains the correct amount of vaccine, and Mr. Hopkins received a full dose of vaccination.
The excess fluid depicted in the video is due to the remaining volume that the ‘dead space’ occupies in the needle system AFTER the full dose has been administered into the syringe. This is expected, and there is ‘dead space’ in every medication administered by injection.
‘The vaccine in the’ dead space ‘is what was thrown out of the syringe after the full vaccine was given to mr. Hopkins was given. “
Reuters reports in January 2021 that the U.S. government began providing low-dead space syringes to reduce the amount of vaccine left in the syringe after use. It aimed to squeeze more doses out of Pfizer vaccination vials, but the plan was hampered by the limited supply of the special syringes (here).
The CHA HPMC spokesman added that they were “one of LA’s first distribution points for in-hospital vaccination”.
VERDICT
Untrue. This video does not show a doctor injecting the vaccine into a parking lot after pretending to administer it. The clip shows actor Anthony Hopkins receiving his full COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Los Angeles, and the fluid thrown out of the syringe is left in the ‘dead space’ in the needle.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.