A story claiming that Kenyan babies are being used as test subjects for a biometric vaccine tracking system is circulating among vaccine opponents. In reality, the pilot program seeks to ensure that all children have a legal identity, birth registration, and appropriate vaccinations.
Recommendation: Emphasizing that the story and posts sharing it are misrepresenting the program is recommended. The pilot program is a collaboration between the Japanese tech company NEC, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Nagasaki University and involves no experimentation. Infants’ fingerprints will be collected at birth and used to ensure that they receive scheduled immunizations and nutritional supplements for the first five years of life. The program was launched because millions of children each year die of preventable diseases before age 5. In the African continent, over 8 million children missed routine immunizations in 2021. Fact Checking Source(s): KEMRI, Healthcare Africa, Nation