Deepfake of South African epidemiologist misleads on Covid-19 vaccine safety

“This is a ‘MUST SHARE VIDEO’ to ALL SOUTH AFRICANS,” reads text superimposed on a TikTok video that was shared more than 28,000 times before it was deleted. 

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Screenshot of the since-deleted TikTok video

The 4-minute video, which looks like a news report by the state’s broadcaster, SABC, shows news anchor Oliver Dickson seemingly saying: “Renowned epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim raises the alarm.”

“Everyone who received the COVID vaccine may be facing deadly danger. Doctors from around the world are beginning to expose the terrifying truth about side effects that were previously carefully hidden,” he seemingly adds, before introducing Karim.

Karim then appears on screen and seemingly claims that South African senior forensic pathologist and author Hestelle van Staden had been finding “unusual, rubbery, worm-like white clots in vaccinated deceased individuals” since 2021.

According to the video, Van Staden documented these findings with photos, but they were suppressed.

It asserts that nearly all bodies with these clots “died from heart attacks, strokes, or sudden cardiac arrest,” and that she discovered an "undeniable link to vaccination".

Lastly, it promotes a new formulation of blood cleansers to prevent vaccine-related complications.

The video was also shared on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research (Caprisa), became a household name in South Africa as a government advisor during the Covid-19 pandemic (archived here and here). 

He frequently appeared on television, offering advice and updates to the public.

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Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a renowned government advisor and epidemiologist for South Africa during the pandemic (AFP / Phill MAGAKOE)

However, the video purportedly showing Karim denouncing vaccines was digitally altered, and Van Staden has refuted the claims made about her. 

Deepfake 

AFP Fact Check conducted a Google keyword search for Karim's TV appearances and found the original SABC news report published on the channel's official YouTube channel on February 9, 2025 (archived here). 

The YouTube video is titled: “Impact of Trump orders on NGOs: Prof Salim Abdool Karim.” 

The reporter can be seen wearing the same navy blue blazer and beige tie as in the TikTok video.

The TikTok video uses the same footage but is slightly cropped, obscuring details such as the pins on the lapel of Karim's jacket and his red tie. 

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Screenshots comparing the digitally altered footage (top) and the original SABC YouTube video

There is no mention of Covid-19 vaccines in the original 6-minute SABC report, which talks about how the US funding cuts would affect HIV treatment in South Africa. 

None of what they appear to say in the TikTok video is heard in the original footage.

Several clues indicate that the TikTok video is a deepfake — Dickson’s and Karim’s distorted mouth movements, unnatural pauses mid-sentences, and the slightly robotic tones from both speakers. 

This suggests that the TikTok video was created using AI tools, using the existing YouTube video as a base, and then using prompts to generate new mouth movements and audio.

‘Nonsense’

“The claim that I found blood clots in vaccinated individuals is complete nonsense,” Van Staden wrote in an email to AFP Fact Check on July 2, 2025, adding that she didn’t take any of the blood clot photos shown in the video.

She clarified that in 2021, she had “absolutely no idea” about a person’s vaccination status and that she “mainly performed autopsies on almost exclusively unnatural deaths,” such as those from motor vehicle accidents or gunshots.

Van Staden said it was outside her “scope of practice to comment on any links (whether true or not) between vaccines and clotting abnormalities.”

“I would never make claims such as these — it is not my area of expertise at all,” she said.

The forensic pathologist was made aware of the deepfake video by industry colleagues and friends.

“It is an absolute frustration that I have to deal with this kind of junk — it places me in a precarious position, and I take exception that someone attempted to pull me into this kind of scam,” Van Staden added. 

Regarding the promotion of blood cleansers, she advised consulting a registered medical practitioner rather than relying on advice found on the internet.

She previously dismissed the claims via a Facebook post on June 24, 2025 (archived here).

SABC news reporter Dickson also commented on the deepfake in a video posted to X on June 23, 2025 (archived here). 

“PSA! A fake deep video of me interviewing Dr Abdool Karim about a deadly COVID vaccine is circulating on TikTok, Facebook and is being shared widely on WhatsApp (sic),” reads the post.

It adds: “It’s a fake video with false information. Please do not spread it any further and please report accounts that share it.”

“I've interviewed him many times over my career, but certainly not about a Covid vaccine that is killing people,” Dickson says in an accompanying video. “I don't even sound like the person in the video. It's my face, it's not my voice, and I really hope that you don't fall for the scam.”

Karim’s organisation, Caprisa, also denounced the false video in an X post (archived here) published on June 24, 2025. 

“CAPRISA wishes to distance itself from the latest incident of misinformation wherein Prof. Salim Abdool Karim is purported to be spreading inaccurate information on COVID-19 vaccines & its related side effects. Evidence based medicine is the bedrock for informed health decisions,” reads the post.

Finally, South Africa’s health department said (archived here) that the video “intentionally spreads disinformation with false anti-vaccine claims, aimed at deceiving the public and undermining public health efforts.”  

Clotting claims

A blood clot that appears after vaccination is called vaccine-induced thrombosis.

According to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), "the most serious of these clots tend to occur in large veins in the brain and abdomen, while the platelets (that would normally be part of the clotting process) drop dangerously low as well" (archived here). 

This is called Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia: “an extremely rare condition, but local experts and treatments are available.”

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Screenshot of symptoms listed on the NICD website

There were reports of higher risks of thrombosis linked to the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines released early in the coronavirus pandemic (archived here and here). 

This led to restrictions on these shots in several countries, including the United States and France, even as public health organisations such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that cases were rare (archived here, here and here). 

The NICD states that if you experience any of the symptoms listed on its website, including a persistent headache, abdominal pain or chest pain, you should seek emergency care immediately: “A blood test will check if your platelets are low.”

AFP Fact Check has previously debunked misleading claims linking vaccines to clots found in corpses by embalmers, as well as allegations that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admitted Pfizer's mRNA vaccine caused thrombosis, which lacked context regarding the research.

Read more AFP Fact Check reporting on vaccine misinformation here.