Social media users are sharing a video showing the vaccination of frontline workers with the COVID-19 vaccine at the Memorial Health Services (MHS) vaccination center in Miramar, Florida. Some of these posts claim that the needle of the patient’s arm “does not come out”. Other posts claim that a ‘retractable needle’ is used to ‘forge’ the vaccine. Both claims are false.
A MHS spokesman told Reuters that the video shows syringes with retractable needles, which is a safety feature that benefits the nurse injecting the vaccine and the patient.
Some reports (here, here) claim that the ‘retractable needle’ is used to ‘fake’ the vaccination. ‘Whoever they think they are deceiving, (sic) it’s a retractable needle, just like they use in movies with the fake knives. Peep game family … ”, reads a report.
In another post (here), which also contains a video of President Joe Biden being vaccinated for COVID-19 (here), it is alleged that the needle used to vaccinate “ordinary citizens” “something” will introduce, apart from the vaccine. ‘THE NEEDLE DOES NOT COME OUT. they are trying to put something in our place, I’m not going to say too much, reads the report.
Reuters had earlier clarified a similar claim containing footage of a COVID-19 vaccine with a retractable needle here.
Reuters could not find the exact video clip in the report on social media, but in a news segment by the station WSVN 7 News in South Florida, the logo and the “Vaccine arrive” graphics at the bottom right of the screen match those in the video. circulating on social media (here).
The scene in the video used in the report is also visible in longer, unedited footage by another local station here. Colors seem more vivid in social media posts because they look like they are a recording of a monitor.
The footage shows health workers at the front receiving the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the Memorial Health System vaccination center in Miramar, Florida on December 14 ( here ).
It can be seen that a woman with the white blouse receives her vaccination at time stamp 2:36 (here). The man with the blue t-shirt is visible around time stamp 2:48. A similar angle of the imagery visible in the post is visible youtu.be/47kfJiciA9o?t=102.
Kerting Baldwin, managing director of Corporate Communications at MHS, told Reuters in an email that the video showed retractable needles from VanishPoint (retractable.com/Products), provided by Pfizer to inject the COVID-19 vaccine .
Baldwin explained that this type of syringe “provides a safety feature” for the nurse injecting the vaccine and the patient. “This syringe absolutely delivers the vaccine with a higher level of safety,” she added.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) website explains how retractable needles work: “After the needle is used, an extra pressure on the plunger pulls the needle into the syringe, removing the risk of exposure to the needle.” An animation of this can be seen on the OSHA website here.A video from VanishPoint, the trademark used by the MHS, illustrates this process here as well.
Retractable needles are one of the engineering controls outlined by the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard, which can be used to reduce the risk of developing blood-borne diseases due to needle injuries (here, here).
A document from the World Health Organization on ‘Ensuring Safe Injections’ also explains that retractable needles can be used to reduce the risk of injury, as seen here on page four.
Reuters has dropped other claims over the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines here, here, here.
VERDICT
Untrue. The video shows syringes with retractable needles used for safety purposes when injecting the COVID-19 vaccine.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.