False claims Scopolamine was found in COVID vaccines stem from website publishing satire
False claims Scopolamine was found in COVID vaccines stem from website publishing satire
(AP) - Claims that the drug Scopolamine was found in COVID-19 vaccines meant for children have no supporting evidence and are denied by the supposed source of the claim. The story appears to have originated on Real Raw News, a website that regularly publishes untrue stories citing unnamed sources (here). An article titled “Scopolamine Found in Child Covid Vaccines” begins: “The U.S. military has found the drug scopolamine in Covid-19 vaccines destined to reach the arms of children, sources in Gen. David H. Berger’s office told Real Raw News”, (here) referring to General David H. Berger, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (here).
“No mention of the Marine Corps in this story is based in fact,” Ryan Bruce, spokesperson for the Marine Corps, told Reuters by email. The article goes on to describe Scopolamine as a “Zombie Drug” that can deprive a person of free-will and that is used in CIA truth serums. There is an element of truth to this description: the drug had been used by some police forces in interrogations, though it appears the threat to use it on a suspect was enough to extract confessions. However, the CIA publicly rejects its use as a “truth drug” on the basis that it can cause “hallucinations, disturbed perception, somnolence, and physiological phenomena such as headache, rapid heart, and blurred vision, which distract the subject from the central purpose of the interview.” The CIA also say that the drug’s ability to dry out the mouth and throat, one of its primary medical uses (here), make it hard for even willing subjects to speak. (here). Scopolamine is also used to treat nausea and vomiting caused by movement, anesthesia or surgery (here). The article goes on to speculate that Scopolamine might be used to dose children to “either outright kill them or coerce them into obeying orders.”
The most common side-effect of Scopolamine is “agitation” (here). While a change or loss of consciousness is a symptom of overdosing on Scopolamine, this is would be unlikely given the size of a COVID-19 vaccine dose; the Moderna vaccine dosage for children aged up to 6 years is 0.25ml (here), while the usual dosage of Scopolamine for children aged 3–6 years is 0.2–0.3 ml (here). Even if a vaccine vial contained nothing else but Scopolamine, it would not reliably cause an overdose.
VERDICT
False. A story that claims that Scopolamine might be used to coerce children into following orders does not make sense given the properties of the drug and the story stems from a website known for publishing false news stories under the guise of satire.
