The novel coronavirus or Covid-19, has spread to at least 114 countries prompting the World Health Organisation to declare it a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11.
Even as WHO and various governments clearing the doubts about the novel coronavirus outbreak, fake news about it continues to spread over social media.
A WhatsApp message about an Israel made coronavirus vaccine has been going viral. The message features a photo of a vial labelled ‘Coronavirus Vaccine’ and photos of what appears to be researchers in a lab.
A similar photo is also being shared on Facebook with a misleading claim that Israeli scientists have developed a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Similar to the WhatsApp message, the Facebook post also features a photo of a vial labelled ‘Coronavirus Vaccine’ along with Sinhalese text, which translates to, ‘Israel discovers a vaccine against coronavirus. / Doctors of Israel, the home of medical research, has said they have received excellent results by giving the corona vaccine.’
Claim:
Coronavirus Vaccine has been created in Israel
Fact Check:
Israel’s MIGAL Research Institute in a press release in February 2020 had said that it was still working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. For four years, the research of Katz, Biotechnology Group Leader at the institute and his team had been focused on developing a vaccine that could be customized to various viruses. It was piloting it with Infectious Bronchitis Virus, but as coronavirus swept China, started adapting the vaccine for COVID-19.
The institute added that this might be adapted to create a human vaccine against COVID-19, but is still ‘weeks away’ from ‘completing safety approvals that will enable in-vivo testing’, ahead of a vaccine being produced.
The WHO has clearly stated on its website ‘there is no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-2019’. The original photo from where this WhatsApp forward has been created was previously published on the stock photography website Shutterstock with the ID number: 1619378911.
The caption of the photo reads, ‘coronavirus vaccine vial with injection syringe at the background’. Therefore, there is no vaccine for the novel coronavirus, yet.
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Also Read: WHO Declares Coronavirus A Global Pandemic; Confirmed Cases Cross 123,800 Globally
