This Picture Was Taken in Latvia, Not Germany
The Claim
A photograph depicts a fence that separates the vaccinated from the unvaccinated at a German shopping mall.
News posted on
Emerging story
An image is being circulated on social media, which depicts a man and a woman separated by a fence in an indoor venue. The accompanying claim is that the image is of a mall in Germany where a fence separates the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Users expressed their anger and compared the act to Nazism.
Misbar’s Analysis
The picture was published by Aldis Gobzems, according to a reverse image search on Google. On October 13th, Gobzems posted the image to his Facebook account with a caption in Latvian, which can be seen below in translation, with a caption in English.
He explained in the post that his wife had a QR code, but he did not.
A state of emergency has been declared in Latvia from the 11th of October until the 11th of January to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the restrictions is that non-essential businesses such as "beauty salons, cinemas, entertainment venues, cultural institutions, libraries, sports gyms, etc." can only be accessed by those vaccinated, have a digital certificate, or have recovered from COVID-19.
Based on the findings, the Misbar team confirms the claim is misleading. The image is not a German mall but a Latvian mall where access is restricted based on your vaccination and recovery status. The claim circulating comes at the backdrop of heightened restrictions in Germany amongst a surge in COVID-19 cases.
