Health Ministry calls out journalists for spreading Deep Fake videos of COVID-19 vaccination

The Ministry of Health has asked members of the general public to disregard manipulated videos on the COVID-19 Vaccination launch event that took place on Wednesday, 10th March, 2021.

The Ministry’s PRO Emmanuel Ainebyoona says it is very unfortunate that some unscrupulous individuals have embarked on creating Deep Fake videos and circulating them online with an   intention of discrediting the COVID-19 Vaccination exercise in the country.

“The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero was the first Ugandan to take COVID-19 Vaccine jab in broad day light. She is currently in good health. A total of 310 persons received their COVID-19 Vaccination jabs at the launch event, with Mulago recording 280 and 30 at Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital” Ainebyoona says.

He therefor requested Ugandans to disregard the manipulated videos with a logo of one of the media houses that are making rounds online.

Adding that the Ministry of Health social media pages i.e twitter and YouTube have the videos that are a true reflection of the National Vaccination launch that happened at Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital and Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital.

On Tuesday, the ministry held a training for journalists who would report about the COVID-19 vaccination. It remains unclear if the persons that leaked the Deep Fake videos were not a part of this training.

The videos indicate that the Minister did not receive the vaccine. However, some journalists have come out to explain that they went late for the event and asked for a demo video since the Minister had finished receiving the jab.