Kamala Harris Said Those Dying With COVID-19 Vaccinated? No, Video Is Edited

In the original video, Kamala Harris was talking about the importance of vaccination against COVID-19.

Fact-Check | Kamala Harris did not say all those hospitalised with COVID-19 are vaccinated. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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A video of United States (US) Vice President Kamala Harris has been shared by several social media users with a claim that she said "all those hospitalised with COVID-19 or dying because of it were vaccinated with 2-3 doses".

However, we found that the original video was edited to make the false claim. In the original video, Harris can be heard saying, "Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is unvaccinated."

"Literally every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing was unvaccinated," she added at a vaccine mobilisation event held in Detroit in July 2021.

CLAIM

Those sharing the video wrote in Hindi: "इस विडियो में अमेरिका की उपराष्ट्रपति ये कह रही हैं कि हाल में अमेरिका में जितने भी लोग कोविड से बीमार हुए हैं और अस्पताल में भर्ती हुए हैं..उन सब को 2 या 3 वैक्सीन लग चुकी थीं और जितने भी लोग मरे हैं उनका भी पूर्ण टीका करण हो चुका था ! सवाल ये है कि हमारी सरकारें किस कि दलाली करने में लगी हुई हैं..?"

[Translation: In this video, the vice president of the US is saying that all the people who have been infected with COVID-19 and have been hospitalised recently were vaccinated with two or three doses. She also says that all the people who died were also fully vaccinated.]

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The same claim was found on Twitter with a caption that read, "'Virtually everyone who is in the hospital sick with covid 19...is vaccinated' - V.P. Kamala Harris." Similar claims had gone viral back in November 2021.

Archives of more such posts can be found here and here. We also found that the video was being shared on WhatsApp.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We extracted keyframes from the viral video using the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension and conducted a reverse image search. We found a video published on the White House's official YouTube channel on 12 July 2021.

We found the transcript of the address on the White House's website and it didn't say the things mentioned in the viral claim.

During her address, Harris said, "Virtually every person who is in the hospital sick with COVID-19 right now is unvaccinated. I’m going to repeat that. Virtually — it’s a fact — paying attention — (laughter and applause). Virtually every person who is in the hospital right now sick with COVID-19 is unvaccinated."

"And even more, regrettably, virtually every person who has recently died from COVID-19 was unvaccinated," she goes on to say.

The viral video was edited to change the word 'unvaccinated' to 'vaccinated.'

Doctors, health experts and India's Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have repeatedly insisted on widespread vaccination as a means to reduce the effect and spread of COVID-19.

Evidently, an edited video was shared to falsely claim that the US Vice President said that the majority of those getting admitted in the hospital with COVID-19 and dying because of the disease were vaccinated.

(This story has been published as a part of The Quint’s COVID-19 fact-check project targeting rural women.)

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