See why this poster for anti-vaccinations is false

A Facebook post shared by anti vaxxer in January has been making the rounds on social media and is causing a stir. The image, depicts an image of a child with multiple injections stuck on them and with the text claiming that the image is an exact depiction of the number of vaccinations a baby born in 2019 will receive. Fact checking organisation Africa Check, which has also partnered with Facebook to combat fake news and false information on the social media platform, has subsequently refuted the claims around the number of vaccinations suggested by the image and the questioned the origins of the actual image.

According to Africa Check the image is actually an image used in an undated awareness campaign by the British Diabetic Association. The image is on one of the posters and has been possibly been manipulated to add the needles.

The organisation also dispels the claim that the needles, which are estimated by Africa Check to be about 100, are the exact number of vaccines that a baby born in 2019 would receive. Africa Check states that according to the South African Department of health’s childhood immunisation schedule for 2016, a baby should get 13 vaccines in their first twelve months of live. Nine of these are by injection, while four are given in drops or by the mouth.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.