The claim: A 2-year-old girl in Virginia died after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during clinical trials
As pharmaceutical companies test vaccine effectiveness in adolescents and children, a post has surfaced on social media claiming a 2-year-old girl in Virginia died after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents ages 12-15 by mid-May, but studies for children ages 6 months to 11 years are still underway.
The claim originated in an article April 30 from Natural News shared as a screen grab to Facebook on May 1 and headlined, “Two-year-old baby DIES during Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine experiments on children.”
Here are the latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Tompkins County as of May 3:
How many people in Tompkins County have received a COVID-19 vaccine?
60% of people in Tompkins County have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 62,034 people
45% of people in Tompkins County are fully vaccinated, for a total of 46,796 people
For a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
How many people in New York have been vaccinated so far?
48% of people in New York have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 9,424,141 people
The claim: Coronavirus vaccines are killing people and will decimate the world’s population
Several widely shared videos and blog posts on Facebook say the coronavirus vaccines are a matter of life and death but not due to the risk of COVID-19.
In an article published April 22, and later taken down, a website called Red Pill University (a reference to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory) wrote that COVID-19 vaccines “will decimate world’s population.” As evidence, it cites a video featuring Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi.
Bhakdi is a microbiologist who has promoted ideas that run counter to the scientific consensus about the coronavirus pandemic, including the false claim that face masks don’t protect against infection. In the video, which was originally published by the New American, a conservative magazine, Bhakdi says coronavirus vaccines are deadly.
Chastity Laskey, USA TODAY NETWORK
View Comments
Some 24% of people living in Kent County are fully vaccinated as of April 27, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC considers someone fully vaccinated two weeks after they ve been given a single-dose shot (Johnson & Johnson) or a second shot (either Pfizer or Moderna).
Delaware reported 103,603 total cases of coronavirus, an increase of 2% from the week before.
Kent County has the lowest percentage of their population fully vaccinated in Delaware as of April 27.
For a county-by county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
Here are the latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Chenango County as of April 27:
How many people in Chenango County have received a COVID-19 vaccine?
39% of people in Chenango County have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 18,920 people
30% of people in Chenango County are fully vaccinated, for a total of 14,461 people
For a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
How many people in New York have been vaccinated so far?
46% of people in New York have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 8,989,922 people