Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson receives his covid-19 booster jab from nurse, Saffron, at a vaccination clinic in St Thomas' Hospital in central London on December 2, 2021 ( POOL / Paul Edwards)

Posts falsely claim British PM's booster shot was 'faked'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 14, 2021 at 10:26
Updated on December 14, 2021 at 10:27
2 min read
By Richard KANG, AFP South Korea

Several images have been shared repeatedly in posts that claim British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 booster shot was "faked". The posts claim the nurse who appeared to administer the jab actually left the cap on the syringe. The posts circulated online after the British government ramped up its booster vaccine rollout as it sought to minimise the impact from the Omicron coronavirus variant. However, the claim about Johnson's jab is false: video footage of the moment he was given a booster shot shows the needle was uncapped.

The claim was shared on South Korean blogging platform Naver Blog on December 6, 2021.

Screenshot of the misleading Naver Blog post, taken on December 8, 2021. ( AFP)

"Boris' fake booster shot show," the post's Korean-language headline reads.

The claim was shared alongside three images of Johnson receiving a Covid-19 jab in his left arm.

English-language text superimposed on the photo reads: "Borris (sic), COVID-19 Booster Shot. The nurse forgot to wear her gloves and the cap is still on."

Johnson received his Covid-19 booster shot on December 2, 2021, at a vaccination clinic in St Thomas' Hospital in London, as reported here by AFP.

One day earlier, Britain said it had set a two-month target to give booster jabs to all adults over 18 in an attempt to minimise the impact from the Omicron variant.

Identical photos were shared alongside a similar claim on Naver Blog and South Korean social media platform Daum Cafe in Korean.

The images were also shared alongside a similar claim in English on Facebook here and here.

However, the claim is false: video footage of the moment Johnson was given a booster jab clearly shows an uncapped needle entering his arm.

Keyword searches on Google found this YouTube video clip published by the website for the London Evening Standard, a British newspaper, on December 3, 2021.

The moment Johnson received his jab can be seen at the video's one-minute 11-second mark:

Below are the screenshots of Evening Standard's YouTube clip that show an uncapped needle circled in red by AFP:

Below are magnified keyframes from the video that also show the needle:

Magnified keyframes of the Evening Standard's YouTube clip showing the needle

The same scene was captured from a different angle in videos published by British tabloids The Sun and The Daily Mail.

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