Facebook posts mislead after UK chief scientific adviser's comments on virus hospitalisations

The claim was shared here on Facebook on July 20, 2021.

"60% of UK hospital covid admissions have two doses of the vaccine. All vaccines are useless, says the UK chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance," the Korean-language claim reads.

Image

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on July 26, 2021.

The claim was shared alongside a screenshot of what appears to be a news report.

The headline reads: "60% of UK hospital covid admissions have two doses of the vaccine. What that means".

It was shared alongside an image of Vallance.

Identical claims were shared on Facebook here, here, here and here.

The claim is misleading.

The report seen in the image was published here on ForexLive, a US-based news site, on July 19, 2021.

In the report, Vallance was not quoted as saying "all vaccines are useless."

In fact, the remark was attributed to the report's author.

The report reads: "The news can become the story. The second order effect here is that some people read this headline and think 'the vaccine is useless so I won't get it'."

The remark refers to comments Vallance gave in a news conference with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on July 19, 2021.

Vallance mistakenly said that 60 percent of people being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

His remarks can be seen at the 19-minute four-second mark in this recorded video published by Sky News.

Vallance later issued a correction to explain that 60 percent of the UK's recent Covid-19 hospitalisations were unvaccinated people.

"Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July. About 60% of hospitalisations from covid are not from double vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from covid are currently from unvaccinated people," Vallance said on his verified Twitter account on July 20, 2021.