Altered video changes Kamala Harris’ comments about who’s dying from COVID-19

A video clip of Vice President Kamala Harris that is being shared on social media shows her making a surprising statement considering the Biden administration’s effort to get as many Americans as possible vaccinated against COVID-19.

But the reason it’s surprising is because she never said it. This video has been altered. 

"Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is vaccinated," she appears to say in the video. "I’m going to repeat that. Virtually — it’s a fact — virtually every person who is in the hospital right now sick with COVID-19 is vaccinated. And even more regrettably, virtually every person who has recently died from COVID-19 was vaccinated. … Literally every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing is vaccinated." 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The original video of this speech shows Harris talking about "unvaccinated" people in the hospital and dying, not vaccinated people. 

You can see her remarks starting around the 1:27:30 mark of this video the White House posted on YouTube. A White House transcript of the speech, which happened in July at a vaccine mobilization event in Detroit also reflects this. 

Harris can also be heard saying "unvaccinated" — not "vaccinated" — in C-SPAN’s video of the speech.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on January 22, 2020 in a Facebook post

Says a coronavirus patent expired just as there is a "sudden outbreak" and, despite "media fear-mongering," there is already a vaccine available.

Harris also made similar statements in an interview with the Detroit Free Press the same day as her speech in the city. 

"The bottom line is that the vaccine will save your life," she said. "I just go back to the same point and I will repeat it over and over again because it’s such an important fact: The people who are currently hospitalized from COVID-19, the vast majority are not vaccinated. Same for those who have died."

We rate claims that Harris said only vaccinated people are hospitalized and dying Pants on Fire!