Fact Check: Nashik Man Didn't Develop Magnetic Powers After Taking Covid Vaccine

A video is viral on social media in which a man can be seen with lots of spoon and coins sticking to his body. It is being claimed that his body developed magnetic ability after he was vaccinated. Many news channels and digital portals wrote about this news, hinting that magnetic power has come into this person's body after getting the corona vaccine.

In this video, Arvind Sonar (71) of Nashik, Maharashtra, is seen in which his son puts a lot of coins, spoons and plates in the upper part of his body, which immediately sticks to Arvind's skin same as iron sticks in a magnet. News organizations like Navbharat Times, BBC and other mainstream media interviewed Arvind Sonar on this matter. Some of them gave him the nickname "Magnetic man" even without checking the actual reason behind this effect. In the BBC video story, Arvind is saying that he had received a WhatsApp forward, after which he did this experiment and saw that this is really happening.

This viral video is widely shared on social media.

Claim:

Man develops magnetic ability after getting vaccinated.

Fact Check:

The viral claim is misleading.

In a statement given to Boomlive, Arvind Sonar said his family never made this video to spread misleading information about the vaccine or to hold the vaccine responsible for it. "We just wanted to know the reason why this is happening". Arvind's son Jayant Sonar emphasized that he did not want to spread confusion among the people about the vaccine at all. "I came across a message on social media that said that after people received the second shot of Covishield, their body was attracting magnets. I asked both my father and mother to experiment". Jayant further said that nothing like this happened in his mother's body while things were sticking to his father's body. He knew that this is not happening because of the vaccine.

"We knew it was not really the vaccine as these objects did not stick to my mother's body. We wanted to understand what is happening as my father is diabetic, so we spoke to a few people, and the media heard about it. We only said we tried it out to see as per what the message stated but have not claimed it to be due to the vaccination," said Jayant.

The family is saying that they don't know if Arvind had that ability before or not.

In a video published by the BBC's Hindi, Arvind Sonar is heard saying that he tried to emulate a WhatsApp message and wants to know why objects stuck to his body.

Dr Bapusaheb Nagargoje, Medical Officer of Nashik Municipal Corporation, confirmed that metals getting stuck to Arvind's body is actually happening and said that the matter of magnetic power is not related to the corona vaccine. He said that there has been no such complaint in the entire district. So far, no complaint has been received from any person that their body has got magnetic power.

"We are researching the same to understand the cause of this, and obviously, the results will not come overnight. One thing we can say for sure is that it is not vaccine-related," said Dr Nagargoje.

Previous instances

This is not the first time when someone claims to have the magnetic ability. Internet is full of such claims. In the year 2013, a man claimed he has the magnetic ability and set a record of holding 53 spoons on his chest and back.

Another similar video went viral in India in 2016, in which it was said that magnetic power has come in the body of a man.

Conclusion:

Doctors have confirmed the incident has no correlation with the Covishield vaccine, but the reason behind the phenomenon is not known yet. Hence the claim is fake.

Boomlive has earlier done the fact-check on the same.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: Viral Infographic Alleges Congress Hindering India's Vaccination Drive Based On Contested Data