The claim
In a disturbing video you can see an almost 1 meter long worm being pulled out of a patient's mouth. The comment: “ #vaccine worm in a #vaccinated person ! This is what the #vaccination to your body!!!1″
Our conclusion
The video clip first appeared online on August 31, 2020 and is said to have been recorded in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Covid vaccines were not yet available at this time. The “vaccine worm” claim is false. The images probably show a parasitic worm or snake.
Trigger warning! The following video shows how an approximately one meter long animal - the supposed "vaccine worm" - is pulled out of a patient's mouth. If you are afraid of snakes or prone to nightmares, it is better not to click on them.
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#Vaccine worm discovered
False claims in the comment to the video
in a #vaccinated person This is what the #vaccination to your body!!!1
Against the #vaccination requirement
Against the #Merkelregime !
#Vaccine side effects
These claims are nonsense for several reasons. The whole story behind the pictures:
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
The video with the “4-foot snake”
The clip showing the medical procedure first appeared on August 31, 2020 and was reposted on social media as well as in many tabloids worldwide [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In it you can see a probe tube stuck in the mouth of a patient under anesthesia. The medical team pulls out the tube and from the end dangles a worm or snake-shaped creature about a meter long, writhing slightly. While the woman in the video is visibly disgusted, you can hear laughter and short snippets of sentences in Russian . Before the procedure: “Let’s see!” and after: “That was unexpected!”
Many newspapers (such as the Indian TimesNowNews ) quote the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Bayan : The patient is said to be a woman from a village in Russian Dagestan in the Caucasus region. The creature is said to be a four-foot (about 1.2 meter) long snake that crawled into the woman's mouth while she was sleeping, Dailymail writes . According to locals, this happens from time to time in the region, which is why they advise against spending the night outdoors.
Snake or roundworm?
While some assume it is a snake, others speak of a parasitic worm. The media portal Inverse spoke to experts who watched the video: Reptile researcher Toby Hibbitts assumes it is a roundworm, probably from the genus Ascaris . But these usually don't get that long. Professor Emily Taylor of CalPoly also thinks the animal is more of a gastrointestinal parasite than a snake. Conservation biologist Luke Linhoff believes it could be a snake, an eel or a large parasitic worm.
The worm thesis sounds more realistic, but since there is no further background information on the video, the snake thesis cannot be completely ruled out. Dagestan is located near the Caspian Sea, snakes in this region are very diverse. Local species include the javelin sand boa, the Eurasian slowworm and the red-bellied snake.
The area between the Caspian and Black Seas has a wide variety of habitats, from high mountains to arid steppe, with many amazing and threatened species. With a good photo or a high quality video it would be easy to identify the species.
Biologist Luke Linhoff to Inverse
Snakes crawling down the throats of sleeping people?
And what about the scary part: How likely is it that a snake will crawl into your mouth and stomach while you sleep? The three experts interviewed give the all-clear to Inverse: Snakes have no reason to crawl into a person's mouth. “Snakes generally avoid people under all circumstances. They see a human as a large predator or a threat and do their best to hide,” says Linhoff. “If they were interested in warmth, they would be more likely to crawl into your clothes.”
It would be very unlikely that a snake of any size, especially a large one, would crawl into a person's stomach while they were sleeping. The esophagus has collapsed, so it's not like it's just a tunnel and the person has to swallow to move something from the mouth to the stomach.
Emily Tylor on Inverse
If it really is a snake and not a parasitic worm, then the animal was probably swallowed intentionally. And that's not so easy when you think about the gag reflex. Additionally, once in the stomach, lack of oxygen and digestive juices would quickly kill the snake. People don't need to worry, says Taylor: The risk of a snake crawling down your throat is almost zero.
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No, not a “vaccine worm”
As Correctiv has refuted in the past, the Covid vaccines do not transmit parasites. So no “vaccine worms” either. The alleged parasites are most likely contamination of the samples or slides examined.
There is something else that speaks against the interpretation that the video shows the removal of a “vaccine worm”: On August 31, 2020, when the video was first distributed, the Covid vaccines had not yet been released. At this point, phase II trials for the Sputnik V vaccine were still ongoing in Russia. A first phase III study with 40,000 participants only started in Moscow at the beginning of September 2020. The first Covid vaccinations in the EU started in December 2020.
By the way, the other statements in the tweet's comment are also nonsense: In Germany there was never a general compulsory vaccination against Covid-19. In addition, Angela Merkel has no longer been Chancellor for 15 months and her party, the CDU, is no longer part of the federal government.
Conclusion: The video clip first appeared online on August 31, 2020 and is said to have been recorded in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Covid vaccines were not yet available at this time. The “vaccine worm” claim is false. The images probably show a parasitic worm or snake.
Sources: CDC , Inverse , Correctiv , apotheke adhoc , dailymail , Al-Bayan , TimesNowNews , Daily Star , india.com , Targum
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