This photo shows people in the Philippines waiting for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on September 7, 2021 at 05:59
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Hong Kong
A photo has circulated in Chinese-language social media posts that claim it shows crowds in Singapore queuing for Chinese Covid-19 vaccines. The claim is false: the photo actually shows people in the Philippines waiting in line for German-made Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.

"Covid news: Don’t want US vaccines even if they’re free! Singaporeans get Chinese vaccines at their own expense and there are long queues outside the clinics," reads a Chinese-language tweet from July 12.

The photo shows three lines of people wearing face masks and face shields.

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Screenshot of the misleading post taken on September 3, 2021

Singapore has approved Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 jabs under its national vaccination programme.

China's Sinovac vaccine is also available from private providers.

As of September 7, 2021, it has not been listed under Singapore's national vaccination programme. The city-state is "still awaiting some outstanding data on the Sinovac vaccine" to evaluate the jab's safety and efficacy, according to Singapore's health ministry.

On August 30, China's Sinopharm jab also became available in Singapore, but only at private healthcare facilities.

The same photo has been shared alongside a similar claim here and here on Twitter and here on Weibo.

However, the claim is false.

While there have been reports of Singaporeans queuing for Chinese Covid-19 vaccines, the photo was in fact taken in the Philippines.

A reverse image search found the same photo published in this report on May 18 by Philippine news site Rappler.

The photo, credited to Rappler, is captioned: "LONG LINES. Residents in Manila wait in line to get inoculated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, May 18, 2021".

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Screenshot comparison of the photo shared in the misleading posts (L) and the photo uploaded by Rappler (R)

Hundreds of people queued for the Pfizer-BioNTech jab at the Manila Prince Hotel after authorities expanded its use to include senior citizens and people with comorbidities, Rappler reported.

The jab was previously only available to frontline health workers.

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