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No, That’s Not Thailand’s Health Minister Being Given COVID Jab

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 

Updated
WebQoof
4 min read
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A video showing a man scared of taking an injection, is being shared with the claim that the person is the health minister of Thailand, and he is scared of taking the coronavirus vaccine.

However, we found that both the claims were untrue. The person in the video was not Thailand’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. We also found that the video was originally posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination drive started. Moreover, Thailand is yet to begin the vaccination drive against COVID-19, which is scheduled to begin on 14 February.

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CLAIM

The caption shared with the video read in Hindi, “थाईलैंड के स्वास्थ्य मंत्री को कोरोना इंजेक्शन लगाने का मंज़र”.

[Translation: Scenes while Thailand’s health minister gets the vaccine against coronavirus.]

The viral video also had a hovering text on it in two languages – English and Arabic – that said, ‘He is Health Minister of Thailand.’

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We also found claims that steered clear from mentioning COVID-19 and said, ‘The health minister of Thailand is afraid of an injection, just like a kid’.

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
0

The video was also shared on Twitter by a Pakistani-Canadian author, Tarek Fatah. It was also shared on YouTube.

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

The video was sent to us on our WhatsApp number.

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WHAT WE FOUND OUT

CLAIM 1: THE PERSON IS THAILAND’S HEALTH MINISTER

We looked for photos of Thailand’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to compare it with the viral video and found that the person in the video was not the health minister. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two images.

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 
Screenshot of the person in the viral video (L) and Thailand’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (R). 
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot and IANS)
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CLAIM 2: HE IS SCARED OF TAKING THE COVID VACCINE

We extracted keyframes from the viral video using the InVID WeVerify tool. We then conducted a reverse image search of certain keyframes. While going through the results we found a video that was posted on YouTube in 2018 by a Hong Kong based English newspaper, South China Morning Post.

The video was posted on 4 February 2018. The caption of this post said, 'Fearful Chinese person going to be injected for the first time'.

The video talks about the person being scared while a taking injection and adds that it was the first time he was taking it. He can be seen being comforted by people around him.

We found that the video was first posted in 2018, much before the COVID-19 pandemic or the vaccination drive. 

We could not independently verify the identity of the person or the source of the video. However, it is evident that since the video was uploaded in 2018, it does not show the person getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Moreover, Thailand has not started the vaccination against COVID-19. We found a report in Bloomberg that said, ‘Thailand will begin vaccination against COVID-19 from 14 February’.

Therefore, the claim that the viral video shows Thailand health minister being scared while getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is false.

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(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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Topics:  injection   COVID-19   coronavirus vaccine 

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