An image created as a joke showing a morphed billboard of Queen Elizabeth II thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sending COVID-19 vaccines to the United Kingdom, is being shared on WhatsApp and Facebook as real.
The image shows a picture of the Queen on a billboard at London's Piccadilly Circus with a message that reads 'Thank you PM Modi for sending us COVID-19 vaccines. You are a good boy'.
BOOM found that the original image from April 2020 has been edited to include the text thanking the Indian PM. The original text on the billboard reads 'We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again' and was displayed in April last year.
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The edited image has been shared with a Hindi caption which translates to 'Friends, see the development achieved by India. The credit for this goes to our PM Narendra Modi. Today a powerful country like UK needs us'.
(Hindi: दोस्तो आज हमारे भारत ने कितनी प्रगति की है। इसका पूरा श्रेय हमारे PM नरेंद्र मोदी को जाता है आज UK जैसे शक्तिशाली देश को हमारी जरूरत पड़ गई)
A Hindi text on the edited picture translates to 'Queen Elizabeth II has put up a billboard thanking Modiji for helping England with Corona vaccine. Such a proud moment this is for our country that a the British who had ruled over us for 200 years are seeking our help today, and praising us. Thanks Modiji for making us proud again'.
View the post below and check its archived version here.
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The image has been shared from several Facebook pages.
BOOM received the same image on its WhatsApp helpline too.
Fact Check
A reverse image search on the picture took us to the website know your meme where details about the same picture has been provided.
The website states 'Queen Elizabeth On A Billboard is an exploitable image of Queen Elizabeth with a message on a billboard in Picadilly Circus... The images became popular in April 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic'.
Taking cue, we did a search with relevant keywords and found an article published in Newsweek dated April 8, 2020. The article used the same image with a caption 'Queen Elizabeth II's coronavirus message displayed on the screen in Piccadilly Circus, London, in April, 2020. This marks the first time the queen's words have been directly quoted on the Piccadilly Lights screen'.
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The message in the original picture reads 'We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again - Her Majesty The Queen, Message to the Nation'.
The Newsweek's report stated that it would be the first time that the 'monarch will be directly quoted on the Piccadilly Lights'.
BOOM found another image of the billboard clicked from a different angle published in France 24 on April 8, 2020. The caption with the picture reads 'A message from Her Majesty The Queen is displayed on a screen in Piccadilly Circus, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, April 8, 2020'. The picture has been credited to Hannah McKay, Reuters.
COVID-19 Vaccine to UK
A news report in Business Standard published on March 3, 2021 states that 'UK will receive 10 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses made by the Serum Institute of India'. A Reuters report also dated March 3 also reports the same.
