Posts on Facebook maintain, through a video, that “the inventor of the Pfizer injection refuses to inject himself.” This is misleading, because while it is true that Ugur Sahin (BioNTech co-founder) indicated that he had not been vaccinated, this was in late 2020, when the vaccine was not yet licensed in Germany. Currently Sahin already has the 3 doses.
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- Posts on Facebook claim that the inventor of the Pfizer injection refuses to inject himself. To prove it, they use the interview they conducted with Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, where he points out that “I am not legally authorized to take the vaccine at this time.”
- The posts are misleadinggiven that they omit that he said it when the vaccine was not authorized in Germany (2020). Later, Sahin announced that she was inoculated with all three doses.
By Elijah Miranda
Different publications (1,2,3) circulating on Facebook state that “the inventor of the Pfizer injection refuses to inject himself”, putting as evidence a video where they interview Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech together with Özlem Türec, a company that designed (together with Pfizer) the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine against Covid-19.
In the interview, the reporter asks:
— “I heard you haven’t been vaccinated yet, why not?”
— To which Ugur Sahin replies: “I am not legally allowed to take the vaccine at this time. Of course we consider possible. It is more important to us that our co-workers and partners get vaccinated.”
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However, the publications are misleading, since although Sahin points out that “I am not legally authorized to take the vaccine at this time”, this was at the end of 2020, when the use of the vaccine was not authorized in Germany.
The video is from December 2020
To find the provenance of the video, we used the InVID (“keyframes”) tool to fragment the video into relevant images from a reverse lookup. The results were disjointed since the record has a title superimposed on it that inhibits search engine accuracy.
However, the microphone used by the journalist shows that the channel is German wave.
By using the keywords: “Ugur Sahin DW” or “Ugur Sahin Deutsche Welle”; we found a video from the same channel on YouTube that corresponds to the clip that has been broadcast on Facebook. The publication date is December 22, 2020 (see red box).
From minute 6:25 is when the excerpt that is spread on social networks begins:
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December 26: key date
“I am not legally authorized to take the vaccine at this time.” This phrase makes sense, because four days after the interview was published in DW, the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, announced (December 26) the mass inoculation process in Germany after the European Medicines Agency gave the go-ahead for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (1,2).
Ugur Sahin
Ugur Sahin himself published in his Linkedin that he and his wife have already received all 3 doses: “There has been misinformation on social media that I am supposedly not vaccinated. In fact, my wife and I have received 3 doses of the vaccine #BioNTech #Pfizer . For several months now, friends have been urging me to post a photo of myself being vaccinated to address these false rumours.” Sahin attached a photo:
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Verifiers
Like Fast Check CLmedia associated with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) such as Damned, Newtral, checked and Fact Check; found similar content. In all they deny that Ugur Sahin was not vaccinated and, furthermore, that the video corresponds to days before the vaccine was approved.
Conclution
Fast Check CL describes as misleading the publications that, through a video, suggest that “the inventor of the Pfizer injection refuses to inject himself”. It is true that Ugur Sahin pointed out that “I am not legally authorized to take the vaccine”, but in the post they omit that he said it when the vaccine was not authorized in Germany (2020). Later, Sahin announced that she was inoculated with all three doses.
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