Fact check: Social media posts feature article with outdated African vaccination data

The claim: Africa is only 6% vaccinated and COVID-19 has 'practically disappeared'

A Jan. 27 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) features a screenshot of an article on COVID-19.

"Africa is only 6% vaccinated, and covid has practically disappeared … scientists 'baffled,'" reads the article's headline.

The post garnered more than 900 likes in three days. Similar posts have been shared on Instagram.

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Our rating: False

The information stems from an outdated article. Africa's vaccination rate has risen above 28%, with several countries surpassing 70%, according to the World Health Organization. Cases have dropped recently because of rising vaccination rates and falling testing rates, but COVID-19 has not disappeared.

Claim stems from outdated article

The article featured in the post was published in November 2021 by an organization called NewsTarget, which has been described by PolitiFact as "a website promoting sensationalized stories."

At the time of the article's publication, Africa's vaccination rate was less than 6% and its number of COVID-19 cases was low. Scientists said this low case rate may have been because the continent's younger population, the tendency to spend more time outdoors and lower rates of urbanization, not because the virus disappeared.

But the post presented the headline as current, with no date included in the screenshot. And it's not close to accurate now.

Nearly 29% of the continent's population is now fully vaccinated, and 35% has received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the World Health Organization.

In a recent press release, the organization said the vaccination rate among adults in Africa rose from 13% to 47% in the last year, with several countries vaccinating more than 70% of their populations.

Compared to the same time last year, the number of new cases reported in Africa has recently dropped by 97% due to rising vaccination rates and falling testing rates, but the virus continues to spread across the highly populated continent.

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WHO reported more than 20,000 new cases were recorded in the first three weeks of January 2023.

The organization still recommends getting vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect against severe illness and death.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

Our fact-check sources:

• PolitiFact, accessed Jan. 30, Newstarget

• Associated Press, Nov. 19, 2021, Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster

• World Health Organization, Jan. 26, COVID-19 (WHO African region)

• World Health Organization, Jan. 30, AFRICA COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard

• World Health Organization, Jan. 26, Africa emerges from holiday travel season with low number of COVID-19 cases

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim that only 6% of Africa is vaccinated