Lebanon’s vaccination campaign was up and running directly after the country received its first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine on February 13th, containing around 28,500 jabs of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine.
However, circulating reports have been criticizing the inoculation process, as some hospitals have been bypassing the government registration program set as a strict requirement to ensure tracking, and that elderly and health workers get vaccinated as a priority.
It prompted Lebanese on social media to urge officials to be wary of hospitals violating the ethical and legal procedures set by the Health Ministry.
Larissa Aoun, producer and reporter at Sky News Arabia, tweeted earlier on Monday that 50% of the people getting vaccinated are not registered on the vaccination platform,
Aoun cited the news to Nasser Yassine, an Associate Professor of Policy and Planning at the American University of Beirut, which led many to believe that AUBMC is one of the hospitals violating the measures.
However, is it true?
Claim: AUBMC is vaccinating individuals without checking if they’re registered on the list.
Verdict: False. AUBMC has shown respect to the directives and the official platform of the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health and is strictly implementing the rules and safety measures.
Context: The961 got in touch with Halim Dagher, AUB nursing graduate who worked for AUBMC in the cancer unit for three years, before transitioning to working as an application analyst for four more years at the medical center.
“AUBMC’s director of nursing has emphasized on all employees to check the registration platform as a strict mandatory step in the vaccination process,” Dagher told us.
“AUBMC is absolutely doing all the work necessary to ensure a fair and smooth process,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the Sky News reporter herself went on to post another tweet clarifying the matter, confirming that all the vaccination procedures taking place at AUBMC have been double-checked to ensure the individuals have registered through the platform.