Photo of a COVID-19 diagnostic test kit is being falsely shared as COVID-19 vaccine - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 23, 2020
A photo is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it is a vaccine developed by US scientists for COVID-19. It is also being claimed that ‘Trump announced Roche Medical Company will launch the vaccine next Sunday, and millions of doses are ready from it’.  Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Photo of a vaccine developed by US scientists for COVID-19.
Fact: The photo shows a COVID-19 diagnostic test kit developed by Sugentech, a South Korean based company. It is not a vaccine. As on 23 March 2020, there is no vaccine for COVID-19. Also, Trump announced FDA’s approval of a Coronavirus ‘test’, not a vaccine, developed by a company ‘Roche’ to increase and accelerate the country’s capacity to test for the virus. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the photo was run through the Google Reverse Image Search, the same image was found in a tweet posted by a journalist. In the tweet, it can be read that ‘Korea finished developing the 10-minute Covid-19 diagnostic kit and is now ramping up production’. So, it is not a vaccine.
Korea finished developing the 10 minute Covid-19 diagnostic kit and is now ramping up production. They plan to export 300.000 test-kits per week – pic.twitter.com/DpJCph9RT7
Also, when searched with the name of the company (‘Sugentech’), on its website, it can be found that the posted photo shows ‘COVID-19 IgM/IgG’, a diagnostic kit for COVID-19. Sugentech is a South Korea based company.
On the WHO website, it can be read that, as on 23 March 2020, ‘there is no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-2019. Possible vaccines and some specific drug treatments are under investigation.
Previously, when a video was shared with a similar claim (‘Trump announced Roche Medical Company will launch the vaccine next Sunday’), FACTLY has debunked the claim and published an article, which can be read here. Trump announced FDA’s approval of a Coronavirus ‘test’, not a vaccine, developed by a company ‘Roche’ to increase and accelerate the country’s capacity to test for the virus.
To sum it up, the photo of a COVID-19 diagnostic test kit falsely shared as COVID-19 vaccine.
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