Video shows magnetic liquid in art project, not 'poisonous vaccine ingredients in blood'

"Microscopic footage of poisonous materials from vaccines flowing through blood vessels," reads a Korean-language Facebook post shared on December 12.

The clip shows several large, dark blobs moving around and interacting with liquid, leaving behind trails of maze-like patterns.

The word "cosmodernism" can be seen in the bottom-left corner of the video.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on December 19, 2022

The same video was shared in similar posts on Facebook, and on South Korean forums including DC Inside and Naver Band.

Some social media users appeared to believe that the images were linked to vaccines.

"This is chilling," one user commented.

"Shocking. It sort of looks like graphene oxide," another wrote, referring to a material that has been at the centre of various forms of misinformation about Covid-19 vaccine safety.

However, the video was created by a graphic artist.

Art project

AFP found the same video posted on Instagram on November 5 by a user called "Cosmodernism".

The video's description reads in part: "Magnetic Relations. No CGI, just ferromagnetics on a microscope slide".

According to the user's Vimeo page, Cosmodernism is an "interdisciplinary artistic project created by Kamil Czapiga in 2019 in Katowice, Poland".

Czapiga has posted videos of his workspace here and here and of the process by which he created similar videos and photos involving "ferrofluids" here, here and here.

According to an article by New Scientist magazine, ferrofluids are liquids speckled with magnetic particles, noting that the intriguing way in which these liquids react to a magnetic field has made them the subject of various artistic projects.

Czapiga rejected the claim that his videos showed vaccine ingredients flowing through blood vessels.

He said the video circulating online showed ferrofluids with coloured ink being manipulated with magnets.

His artwork is "nothing complicated" and "has nothing to do with any kind of medication or graphene," he told AFP on December 17.

Vaccine safety

Covid-19 vaccines have been targeted by a wave of misinformation, including false claims that they contain graphene oxide or even change human DNA.

The World Health Organization says the jab has been safely administered to billions of people around the world and that the benefits of vaccination greatly outweigh the risks