Zee Hindustan aired a video of a vaccine wastage incident in Ecuador, falsely linking it to the Aligarh case where a health worker, Neha Khan was booked for allegedly throwing away COVID vaccine filled syringes in the trash.
The details of the incident of Khan's vaccine wastage has also been shared with a video from Mexico. BOOM has fact checked both the videos earlier when they were viral with different claims. Read here and here.
Auxiliary nurse midwife Neha Khan from Jamalpur Primar Health Centre in Aligarh was booked for allegedly disposing off as many as 29 syringes filled with COVID 19 vaccine without administering them to the beneficiaries. According to a report published in wire agency ANI on May 31, police has lodged an FIR against Khan and the medical officer-in-charge of the PHC, Afreen Zehra.
Meanwhile, Zee Hindustan on May 30 reported the incident and aired a video showing a healthcare staff pulling out a syringe from a patient's arm without administering its content. The video was aired on Zee Hindustan's YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter handle with a Hindi claim which translates to 'A direct question to extremists...big reveal. Who is doing the vaccine jihad in the country?'
(Hindi: कट्ट़रपंथियों से सीधे सवाल करने वाला बहुत बड़ा खुलासा | देश में कौन कर रहा है Vaccine वाला जिहाद ?)
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The same video was shared by multiple social media users, several of which are verified Twitter handles, with similar false claims.
Former spokesperson of BJP Rajasthan Laxmikant Bhardwaj, tweeted the video with a Hindi caption translating to 'See the exploits of nurse Niha Khan in UP, how she used to prick the injection needle and throw it back in the dustbin without discharging the vaccine. Yogi Raj was there, so she was arrested and also dismissed. But what was the purpose?'.
(Hindi: यूपी में नर्स निहा खान का कारनाम देखिए कैसे इंजेक्शन की सुई चुभोकर बिना वैक्सीन डिस्चार्ज किए वापस निकालकर डस्टबिन में फेंक देती थी। योगी राज था इसलिए गिरफ़्तार भी और बर्खास्त भी हो गई । पर मक़सद क्या था ?)
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Similarly, BJP UP spokesperson Manish Shukla shared the video with a similar caption in Hindi.
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Right wing website, OpIndia in its report on Khan, also carried screenshots from the video and included a tweet which had the video. View an archive of the story here and the tweet here.
The site has since deleted the same and issued an apology for the same.
The 12.48 long video uploaded on Zee Hindustan's social media handles on May 30 repeatedly refers to the healthcare staff seen in the video as Neha Khan.
Also read Old Video From Gujarat Viral As Muslim Mob Attacking Cop In Hyderabad
Fact Check
BOOM tracked both the videos with the help of reverse image search and found that one is from Ecuador and the other from Mexico. We have earlier debunked both the videos.
Video aired by Zee Hindustan
A reverse image search on Yandex led BOOM to a report published in CNN Espanol on April 26, 2021. The report carries the same video and mentions that the incident took place in Ecuador.
Taking cue from the video, we did a keyword search and found another report published in CNN Espanol on April 26, 2021 which details the incident.
A Twitter handle @gabriela_ma94 with a caption in Spanish also showed the video with the caption calling out the health care staff. The caption translates to, 'How disgusting to see how they play with the health of citizens. So much bullshit so that in the end they just prick him and not vaccinate him. The worst thing is that it prevents you from the discomfort that injecting it can cause. MISERABLES'.
(Spanish: Que asco ver como juegan con la salud de los ciudadanos. Tanta pendejada para que al final solo lo pinchen y no lo vacunen. Lo peor es que lo previene del malestar que puede provocar inyectarla. MISERABLES)
Health Minister Camilo Salinas also tweeted saying the nurse in the viral video had been identified and an investigation initiated. Salinas' tweet in Spanish, translates to 'Greetings..We have identified the nurse and the patient. The investigation begins, we will give details soon'.
Reports carried a clarification by Secretary General of the Cabinet of the President of Ecuador, Jorge Wated, that the man seen getting vaccinated in the video was not within the age group of people being vaccinated at the time i.e. over 65 years. The man was 55-years-old and had fraudulently passed the queues to get vaccinated. While the healthcare staff did not vaccinate the man first, but he was later administered a dose.
The secretary general later said that, both, the nurse and patient had been arrested.
Video 2
BOOM has earlier debunked the same video and found that the incident shown therein is from Mexico. The viral video shows a healthcare staff prick the arms of a man and take out the syringe without administering the vaccine.
A reverse image search on the video had led us to a Spanish article published in Columbia-based news outlet El Tiempo. A translation of the report reads, "The Mexican newspaper El Universal explained that the incident occurred at the National School of Biological Sciences Zacatenco Unit of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), and that the Institute Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) acknowledged the error and apologised for the facts."
We also found a report on the same incident uploaded on the YouTube channel El Universal on April 4, 2021 with a title 'IMSS withdraws from vaccination a nurse who pretended to vaccinate an elderly person in the GAM'.
Read full report Clip Of Vaccine Administered With Empty Syringe Is From Mexico