Fact Check

Fake CNN Report: COVID Vaccine Recipients Become Cannibals

Sharing doctored CNN news chyrons is a cottage industry on social media platforms.

Published Jan. 5, 2021

 (Serhii Kalaba / Shutterstock.com)
Image Via Serhii Kalaba / Shutterstock.com
Claim:
An image shows a CNN report on an outbreak of cannibalism among COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

In December 2020, as the U.S. began the first vaccinations for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, social media users circulated a related image of a purported news account. The image looked to be a screenshot from CNN of the aftermath of an emergency room scene, with a chyron stating that hospitals were on lockdown as "first COVID vaccine patients begin eating other patients:"

However, neither CNN nor any other news outlet reported on an outbreak of cannibalism among recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine. The CNN screenshot was a fake, produced using a photograph showing "the trauma bay in the emergency department at Temple University Hospital after resuscitation efforts [on a gunshot victim] failed."

That photograph accompanied a Feb. 14, 2019, News York Times opinion piece penned by a medical student about his observations on treating the victims of gun violence.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklo ... read more