Claim:
During an appearance on GhanaWeb TV’s current affairs program, The Lowdown, Hassan Ayariga, the founder of the All People’s Congress (APC) and a two-time presidential candidate, made a claim that the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, did not take the coronavirus vaccine.
Instead, Ayariga claimed the president was injected with a malaria vaccine.
Verdict: The claim is completely FALSE
Explanation:
After Ghana, on February 24, 2021, became the first African country to receive some 600,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines from the COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) facility, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on March 1, 2021, announced in a tweet that, “On Monday, 1st March 2021, my beautiful Rebecca and I were at the 37 Military Hospital to take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly. The vaccine is safe, and it will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health.”
This followed an advertised public event of the president taking the first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine, along with his wife as well as Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his spouse, Samira Bawumia and other government officials.
The event, which was telecast LIVE on all major news outlets, saw the president and his spouse, the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, taking their jabs at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
On Monday, 1st March 2021, my beautiful Rebecca and I were at the 37 Military Hospital to take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly. The vaccine is safe, and it will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/4MVXOioOIo
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) March 1, 2021
In the video that showed the president taking the jab, nurses from the hospital administered the vaccines to the president and his spouse, publicly showing the bottles of the AstraZeneca vaccine that were used.
Verification:
GhanaWeb TV’s current affairs program, The Lowdown, hosted Hassan Ayariga, the Founder of the APC, on its most recent episode.
Among the several topical issues that the two-time presidential candidate spoke on, including the Saglemi Housing issue, to the #FixTheCountry campaign, he made a few claims.
Among these was the claim that the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was injected with a malaria vaccine, contrary to the much-believed coronavirus vaccine.
Hassan Ayariga claimed that it is was unfathomable that the manufacturers of the vaccines, who he described as the “White Man”, would send vaccines, and for that matter, anything that is considered good, to Africans first, before they themselves used same.
He added that they have sent the vaccines here to “kill us” instead and it is the reason he has personally not taken the vaccine.
Here is the transcription of his interaction with Nii Akwei Akwei, host of The Lowdown:
Nii Akwei: Have you taken the vaccine already?
Ayariga: No
Nii Akwei: Is it a personal thing or what?
Ayariga: No. what is there to take? You see we Africans we are dumb. A White Man will never give you something first when it’s too good before himself. Never! They’ve produced all these vaccines. Tell me how many of these white countries have started taking the vaccines.
Nii Akwei: They are taking the vaccines
Ayariga: Yes, is it the same vaccines they are taking? They are testing their own and they are killing you. Ghana is the first African country to take the vaccine, right? The president went and they gave him malaria vaccine and you call it corona vaccine; that’s not corona vaccine. I think I’m sure he took malaria vaccine.
To ascertain the claims made by Hassan Ayariga, GhanaWeb’s Etsey Atisu and Mawuli Ahorlumegah conducted a factcheck and have established that his claims are FALSE.
The video below captures the full event during which President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his wife, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, took the first jabs of the coronavirus vaccines that were brought into the country.
Also, photo evidence is available to show the exact bottle and the content that was given to the president, also shown below.
Meanwhile, other African presidents have also publicly taken the COVID-19 vaccines primarily from the COVAX facility and other vaccine distribution outlets.
They include President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, President Wavel Ramkalawan of Seychelles, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Macky Sall of Senegal among others.
Besides, GhanaWeb reported earlier that the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) kicked against conspiracy theories that suggested that there were plans to inject the president with water instead of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
According to the Association, it is unthinkable for anyone to suggest that the President was injected with water while the rest of the populace was injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Frank Ankobea, President of the Ghana Medical Association, in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show expressed: “What I can assure everyone is that it is the same vaccine that is being given to everyone. How is it possible that some will be injected with water while some receive the vaccine? That would imply that the vaccines aren’t safe. But such a thing will never happen. I am assuring Ghanaians that will never happen. No one will have that mindset to inject the leaders with water. It is never true. Ghana Medical Association won’t sit down for a thing like that to happen. People are speaking without basis”.
Conclusion:
It is the conclusion of the GhanaWeb Factcheck team that the claims made by Hassan Ayariga that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took a malaria vaccine instead of the coronavirus vaccine is completely FALSE.