FALSE: 24 people die after vaccination in Zamboanga del Sur town

At a glance

• Claim: Twenty-four people died in the municipality of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, on August 16 after vaccination.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: The town’s health chief refuted the claim. Moreover, the Department of Health reports zero deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, as of August 16.
• Why we fact-checked this: A post containing this claim, made by Facebook account “Zamboanga Peninsula Spotted,” was shared 101 times, as of writing.

Complete details

Facebook account “Zamboanga Peninsula Spotted” made a post falsely claiming that 24 people died in the municipality of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, on August 16 after vaccination.

The post has been shared 101 times, as of writing.

This claim is false.

Health officials belied the claim on Wednesday, August 18. “It’s not true,” Dr. Gretchen Durico, the town’s health chief, said.

Durico said people should not rely much on social media for information about COVID-19 and vaccinations.

The information, she said, must come from the Department of Health (DOH) or the rural health unit concerned.

In a Facebook post on August 16, the DOH also said, “To date, there have been zero deaths caused by the COVID-19 vaccines.”

Bayog lies on the outskirts of Zamboanga del Sur’s border with Zamboanga Sibugay.

As of August 17, the municipality has logged a total of 157 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases with 39 active cases.

The health officer urged netizens to be responsible with their social media posts. – Antonio Manaytay, with reports from Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

Antonio Manaytay is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.