If vaccine shots are safe, why do people keep getting caught faking them?

->@oromagi

 Snopes said these officials later that day claim to have gotten the shot after the photo shoot, but if they were really getting the shot anyway, and thought it safe, it makes no sense to do a staged photo shoot instead of a real one.

@oromagi

It wasn't debunked LOL. They agreed with the skeptics who said it was faked. They used more agreeable terms though. Here you go https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-officials-posing-for-covid-19-vaccine-is-not-what-it-looks-like-1761512-2021-01-21

Fact Check: These officials posing for Covid-19 vaccine is not what it looks like

A video in which a man and a woman are seen posing for vaccination pictures is circulating on social media with the claim that officials in Karnataka’s Tumkur are faking it for the cameras while pretending to take Covid-19 vaccines.

A video in which a man and a woman are seen posing for vaccination pictures is circulating on social media with the claim that officials in Karnataka’s Tumkur are faking it for the cameras while pretending to take Covid-19 vaccines. The 43-second video also shows a nurse posing as if she’s administering injection to the duo.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The officials in the video are Tumakuru district health officer (DHO) Nagendrappa and principal of district health coaching centre Dr Rajani M. The officials posed on request from the media. The Tumakaru district magistrate confirmed that they were later vaccinated on the same day.

AFWA probe

With the help of keyword search, we found a news report published on January 16 on the website of Deccan Herald’s Kannada daily “Prajavani”. The report carried a picture of the same man seen in the video taking a jab.

The picture caption in Kannada translates to, “DHO Nagendrappa getting vaccinated at Tumkur District Hospital”.

We then reached out to Rakesh Kumar, the district magistrate of Tumakuru district.

Rubbishing the viral claim, Kumar said, “The officials you see in the video did take the vaccine. The vaccination process that day was delayed due to technical reasons. For instance, the Co-Win application was not automatically allotting the sessions to registered candidates and officials had to do it manually. But the media could not wait till the official vaccination process began. That’s why the officials posed in that way. Later, all of them were vaccinated. We have also submitted a report on the matter to authorities concerned.

Channabasappa K, the additional deputy commissioner as well as additional district magistrate of Tumakuru, also confirmed that the viral claim is misleading.

“The claim that the district health officials faked the vaccination is not true. When I conducted an inquiry, it was revealed that due to technical issues with the Co-Win application, the vaccination process was delayed. However, since the media was in a hurry to leave, the officials posed for a few clicks. They were later vaccinated on the same day,” Channabasappa confirmed.

We also spoke to Tumakuru DHO Nagendrappa, the man seen in the viral video.

Speaking to AFWA, Nagendrappa said, “According to the Co-Win application, our date of taking the first shot was not January 16. However, we were later informed to pre-pone the date to January 16, the first day of the vaccination drive. So, we had to re-register and the process got delayed. However, the media was in a hurry to leave after covering our vaccination. So, we finally decided to pose for some pictures.”

AFWA also received a clarification note by Dr Rajani M, principal of the district health coaching centre and the woman seen in the viral video. The note with her letterhead was written to the district information officer confirming that she took the Covishield shot on January 16.

Dr Rajani also submitted a copy of her jab certificate. In this, it can be seen that she took the Covishield vaccine on January 16, 2020, from the Tumakuru district hospital.

AFWA then spoke to Rangaraju, reporter of Kannada daily “Vartha Bharati” who was present at the Tumakuru district hospital on January 16.

“I was among the media personnel in the same room at Tumakuru district hospital where the video in question was shot. The media had no time to wait till the official process started. We asked the officials to pose for us so we could leave at the earliest. Unfortunately, someone shot the video and that went viral with misleading claims,” Rangaraju said.

India Today stringer at Tumakuru, Devaprakash, was also present at the hospital at that time. He too confirmed that the officials posed on request from the media and they later got vaccinated.

Hence, it is clear that the viral video only shows the district officials posing for the media ahead of the official vaccination drive.

(With inputs from Nagarjun Dwarakanath in Bengaluru)

• you posted an out of context viral video making false claims about doctors and nurses working in their official capacity to save lives. 
  
• You read the perfectly rational explanation for the behavior depicted and decided to publish the lie without benefit of the context you had researched.
  
• You asked a series of questions in the guise of an uniformed person raising ethical concerns when in fact you were an informed person pretending not have the answers in order to promote the falsehood unethically.

@oromagi

I dispute number 2.

I said that I disagree with photo ops instead of showing the actual shot, unless the photo ops are paired with a disclaimer that the footage is just a photo op and not showing the actual vaccination. 

"why do journalists, politicians and nurses keep faking getting them, while simultaneously telling people they are safe?"

-->@oromagi

I don't know if they got the shot.

Unfortunately they chose to pretend to take it for a photo op, instead of just videoing the real thing. We just have to take their word for it, which can be problem for convincing the vaccine skeptics the shot is safe to take

• So on the one hand we have the scientists who conquered and controlled polio, measles, chickenpox, mumps, SARS,  ebola, dengue fever, encephalitis, cholera, yellow fever, bubonic plague, bird flu, typhus, AIDS, etc, etc, etc saying they have a treatment that proves 95% effective against getting COVID and even better at keeping the symptoms mild with almost no chance of serious side effects
  
• and other the other you have one grainy, edited-out-of-context video from Tumkur, India showing people you've never heard of posing as if they were getting the shot- everybody involved with the video confirms that the two subjects only delayed the shot until they got their paperwork.
  

• It is not skeptical to say that any fictional narrative you can attach to a YouTube clip might serve as evidence against 900 million people vaccinated with fewer than 5,000 reports of any adverse reaction (mostly allergic reactions).  
  
• It is not skeptical to headline "caught faking" when it was just a photo opportunity for promotional purposes, as you knew and concealed from your audience.
  
• A skeptic accepts the evidence when that evidence well answers questions and addresses doubt.  
  
• A fool desperately manufactures narratives to reinforce bias at the expense of honesty.

Just in from 20 minutes ago. A european soccer player dies on field just 24 hours after getting vaccinated. 

It is wholly possible for people to fake doing something safe (if they believe it to be safe or not, would be another matter).

What’s your point? If some journalist fakes getting it, why’s it so bad? Journalists exaggerate all the time.

I just think maybe the media prioritizes some other things over truth.

We are trusting them to tell us about the condition of the world outside of our small bubbles. It is a very important task, and by exaggerating, sensationalizing or lying than they are neglecting their duty to the audience

I can fake getting a covid shot? where do I go and who do I talk to to do so.