Fabricated Health Service Ireland poster resurfaces listing 'sudden death' as Covid-19 vaccine side effect
Fabricated Health Service Ireland poster resurfaces listing 'sudden death' as Covid-19 vaccine side
(Reuters) - A fabricated poster mimicking the branding of the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) has resurfaced online appearing to list “sudden death” as a side effect of Covid-19 vaccines.
The image shows a poster with a yellow background and titled “Coronavirus Covid-19.”
Text on the poster reads: “To all who have come forward to receive their Covid-19 vaccinations, thank you for playing your part in keeping our community safe. Rare side effects have come to our attention.”
The poster then lists certain conditions including headaches, Bell’s palsy, heart attacks and sudden death.
Text printed across the bottom third of the poster urges those who have received a vaccine and experienced side effects to contact the Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).
Examples of the image shared online can be viewed (here) and (here).
The poster mimics the typography, style and graphics used in official posters printed by the HSE. However, the HSE logo is not visible on the bottom right corner of the poster, as can be seen in authentic posters created by the health board (here), (here).
The fabricated poster also has a harp – the national symbol of Ireland (here) – alongside text in Irish and English that reads: “People of Ireland.”
In official posters printed by the HSE, the harp can indeed be seen but text in Irish and English instead reads: “Government of Ireland.”
No such poster is viewable in an archive of public HSE posters about Covid-19 (here) , (here).
A spokesperson for the HSE told Reuters that no such poster was published by the authority.
“This is not an HSE poster, and the information included on the poster was not authorised or published by the HSE,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
The HSE does not list heart attacks or sudden death as a side effect of mRNA vaccines (here).
A spokesperson for the HPRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
VERDICT
False. No such official poster was printed by the Irish health executive, a spokesperson for the HSE told Reuters. No such poster exists in an archive of public posters printed by the HSE and text reading “People of Ireland” on the fake poster differs from language on official HSE posters.
