Video Does Not Show Nigerian Children Running From Vaccines
The Claim
A video shows school children in Nigeria who are so scared of the coronavirus vaccine that they are running away in terror.
News posted on
Emerging story
For the past few months, a number of social media users have been sharing a video that allegedly shows Nigerian school children fleeing from their school. The users state that the children are running from coronavirus vaccines.
These posts have gained thousands of views and hundreds of interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
The video does not show Nigerian school children fleeing from coronavirus vaccines, but from a tear gas canister that had exploded inside the school. The earliest upload that we could identify of the footage dates to May 2019, but the earliest known case of COVID-19 dates to November 2019. Several news sources state that a 17-year-old student had brought a tear gas canister to school, and it exploded when he was showing it to friends. The explosion caused panic and several injuries.
Additionally, many of the uploads that claim that the school children were running from coronavirus vaccines date to January 2021. No footage that claims to show the Nigerian public’s reaction to coronavirus vaccines from that date can be genuine, as coronavirus vaccines did not arrive in Nigeria until March 2021.
