Did Fauci Say COVID Vaccines Could Make People More Likely to Be Infected?

A video from March 2020 has been taken out of context.

By
3

A viral tweet shows a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and makes the claim that, “Dr. Fauci opens up the possibility that the COVID-19 vaccine could be making people more likely to be infected with the virus.” In the clip, Fauci tells Zuckerberg that “this would not be the first time, if it happened, that a vaccine that looked good in initial safety actually made people worse.”

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1470455120513142792

The original tweet has been shared more than 16,000 times and liked more than 15,000 times and has received further attention with repostings on Instagram and Facebook.

The same clip was shared by TrendingPolitics on December 14 within an article headlined: “Dr. Fauci Admits That Covid Vaccines May Actually Make People ‘Worse’: “It Would Not Be The First Time.”

The claim that Fauci admitted that the COVID-19 vaccine may make people “worse” or “more likely to be infected with the virus,” is false. 

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
3
By
Comments (3)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Thanks for fact-checking this as it’s not completely a cut and dry (like if it were a deep fake). In this case it’s a real video but lacks context. I could see that being very misleading to people. This was useful.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Frank Lee

    I'm not sure the point of this article. Fauci's claim appears to be coming true. The "vaccines" along with the health totalitarian official orders appear to be making the pandemic last a lot longer and thus kill more people.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Ben Connelly

      Did you miss the point of the fact check? Fauci was talking about what can potentially happen in vaccine trials. In this case, it did not. In the cases of the AIDS and RSV trials, the vaccines did not make it to market because of what happened in the trials. For the COVID vaccines: 1. They made it to market and 2. We know what happened in the trials and the vaccines worked and did not have serious side effects.

      Collapse