No evidence Johns Hopkins doctor said this about COVID-19 vaccines

A long statement is being shared on social media that looks critically at COVID-19 vaccines relative to other vaccines. 

"I have never seen a vaccine that forced me to wear a mask and maintain social distance, even when you are fully vaccinated," the statement says. "I have never seen a vaccine like this one, which discriminates, divides and judges society as it is. And as the social fabric tightens… it’s a powerful vaccine! She does all the things except IMMUNIZATION. If we still need a booster dose after we are fully vaccinated, and we still need to get a negative test after we are fully vaccinated, and we still need to wear a mask after we are fully vaccinated, and still be hospitalized after we have been fully vaccinated, it will likely come to "‘it's time for us to admit that we've been completely deceived.’"

Who said it? 

According to a Feb. 2 Facebook post, it was a Johns Hopkins Hospital doctor — "Dr. James Kelly, virologist" on Jan. 12, 2022. 

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.)

We reached out to Johns Hopkins Medicine about the post. 

Lisa Burgunder, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine, told us that human resources had confirmed the hospital doesn't have "any active physician employees by the name of James Kelly." 

Searching for part of the quote online, we found no results that supported the claim that a Johns Hopkins virologist named James Kelly — or anyone with Johns Hopkins Medicine — said this.

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stated on January 26, 2020 in an article

Says China "stole Coronavirus from Canada and weaponized it into a Bioweapon."

We didn’t find a James Kelly searching among doctors on Johns Hopkins’ website, or anything to lend credence to the post’s claim that a Johns Hopkins doctor made the statement shared there. 

We did find a 2018 Baltimore Sun obituary for Dr. James H. Kelly,  who in 1985 was named associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School. 

But we found nothing to corroborate this post. 

We rate it False.