13 Children Did Not Die From Vaccine, But Were Killed In A Stampede In Kenya
The graphic video, which is disturbing and misused on social networks, has nothing to do with vaccination. It was filmed in February 2020 in the Kenyan city of Kakamega, when 13 children died in a stampede in a primary school and 40 others were injured
We are reviewing a Facebook post in which it is appealed to the citizens not to get vaccinated and at the same time, it is insinuated that the first target is the black race. As part of the post, a video has been released showing 13 dead children, dressed in light green uniforms, and around them are their parents mourning their death.
It is not true that the death of these 13 children has anything to do with vaccination!
In February 2020, in the Kenyan city of Kakamega, 13 children died and 40 were injured in an elementary school stampede. The video, which is falsely presented as having a connection to the vaccination process, is actually of these dead children, who lost their lives in a stampede at 5 PM local time as they tried to leave the school, and part of the stairs collapsed. The incident ended fatally. In the same incident, 40 students were injured.
Vaccination against Covid-19 or any other disease is in no way related to these deaths. In February 2020, there was no vaccine. In addition, the post maliciously insinuates that the killings of the vaccinated occur against the black race, a fact which is an unfounded spread of fear and panic.
This video shows footage from the moments when the injured children in the same incident were taken to the hospital (from 2 minutes and 55 seconds to 3 minutes and 2 seconds). Their light green uniforms are identical to those in the video from the post where the dead children, victims of the stampede, are lying. The BBC reports from the scene with eyewitnesses who tell how the children were walking in a narrow passage with stairs in an attempt to go home after class and started falling on each other and thus the tragedy happened.
The same video from the post we are reviewing was previously abused in other fake posts on social networks. For example, one such post claimed that children died after someone brought them poisonous sweets to school, which is also a false claim.
The graphic video, which is disturbing, draws great attention on social networks, and even two years later, with its misuse, the citizens are deceived into believing in the narratives that the producers of false information want to place. Thus, the death of 13 children in Kenya has been abused in an anti-vaccination campaign to influence parents not to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, even though the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for that purpose.
Given that the video that was shared along with the anti-vaccination message has nothing to do with vaccination, one can get the impression that vaccination and the death of 13 children are related, which is not true. It is true that 13 young students died, it is true that the video shows dead people, but it is not true that it happened due to a vaccine. Vaccines are not a way to kill people and children, but a way to save their lives from dangerous diseases, including Covid-19. The risks of the vaccine are many times lower than the risks of the virus itself, as already established by all relevant medical agencies and bodies in the world. No vaccine is approved subjectively, only after numerous clinical trials and assurances of its safety and efficacy.
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