Doctored photo of vaccination clinic sign pushes false suggestion of harm
A photo of a vaccination clinic in Foxborough, Massachusetts, that was digitally altered to push an anti-vaccine narrative is circulating online. Let’s take a look at the facts.
This COVID-19 clinic sign is not authentic.
The text in the white box has been doctored.
The sign is not from a vaccine clinic for children.
The sign — which actually indicated in Spanish inside the white box that COVID-19 vaccines were available without an appointment — was displayed at a vaccine clinic hosted at a New England Patriots training camp last summer.
NewsLit takeaway
Text on signs is easy to alter with photo manipulation software and is a common target of bad actors online. In this case, the photo was also presented in a false context, circulating online shortly after the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Be wary of anti-vaccine rhetoric that seeks to propagate fear about the safety of the vaccine for kids, which is expected to surge as the vaccine rollout among children progresses.
Related:
- “Is This COVID-19 ‘Vaccine Side Effects’ Poster Real?” (Dan Evon, Snopes).
- "Video falsely claimed to show children who died due to Covid-19 vaccination" (Stavros Malichudis, AFP Fact Check).
- “Conspiracy Theorists Baselessly Claim Gavin Newsom Was Injured by COVID Booster” (Anna Merlan, Vice News).
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