FALSE: Photo shows COVID-19 ‘vaccine patients’ eating other patients

At a glance:

• Claim: A photo supposedly shows that COVID-19 “vaccine patients” have started eating other patients.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: This photo was posted in February 2019, showing a messy trauma bay at an emergency department.
• Why we fact-checked this: Several posts containing this claim were flagged by Facebook Claim Check.

Complete details:

Facebook users have been circulating a photo bearing a false claim saying COVID-19 “vaccine patients” have started eating other patients.

It bears the CNN logo with a ticker that reads: “Hospitals on lockdown as first COVID vaccine patients start eating other patients.”

Multiple posts containing this photo were flagged by Facebook Claim Check, a platform that detects dubious content on Facebook.

The claim is false.

Using reverse image search, Rappler found that the photo was uploaded in an opinion piece on gun violence published in The New York Times on February 14, 2019, way before the coronavirus pandemic began.

The photo, taken by Eric Curran, was captioned: “The trauma bay in the emergency department at Temple University Hospital after resuscitation efforts failed.”

Moreover, Rappler found no news reports confirming or supporting this claim.

This claim has also been debunked by other fact-checkers, including Agence France-Presse, Factly, and The Quint.

Rappler earlier debunked another claim that a Tennessee nurse died after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.