FALSE: This video does not show a black-eyed born baby because of vaccination
The mother of the baby did not mention and put the blame on any type of vaccine in the video she released to debunk the misinformation about her child.
A video shared on Facebook claiming to show that mothers who have been fully vaccinated are giving birth to black-eyed babies is FALSE.
“Mothers who have been vaccinated in both rounds are giving birth to completely black eye [sic] babies,” the post reads.
The post attached one video to support its claim. However, keyframes analysis using InVID and then Google reverse image search results reveal that the claim is fake.
The video was initially posted on TikTok by the mother of the baby. The video shows a newborn baby who sits on the bed with the support of an unidentified person. Following the release of this video, different people started to claim that the baby shows genetic mutation owing to the COVID-19 vaccine. But the mother of the baby debunked the claim in this TikTok video.
In the video, she said that she did not have the COVID-19 vaccine when she was pregnant as it was not available for her during that time. In addition, the mother of the baby did not mention or put the blame on any type of vaccine in the video she released to debunk the misinformation about her baby. She said her baby is healthy.
A similar claim and video were shared in this Telegram channel along with one image and other videos.
The messages from the Telegram channel were shared in the comment section of a post on Facebook that said, “please do not get vaccinated against coronavirus.”
Ethiopia has launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign to motivate people to get vaccinated.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook video claiming to show that fully vaccinated mothers are giving birth to completely black-eyed babies and find it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck copy editor Eden Berhane, and chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
