A PICTURE of a Pfizer Covid vaccine trail patient’s foot covered in sores was used by anti-vaxxer’s to promote fears on social media over jab.
Patricia Chandler, from Texas, began to develop an unexplained skin condition in October, less than a week after she participated in Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine trail.
Chandler said her illness began when she went for a walk on a chilly afternoon.
She said she began to experience pain in her left food, and her husband suggested it might be her shoes rubbing.
However, when she got home she found that her heal part of her foot had become painfully swollen.
A big purple and red blister appeared that was swollen and spilling with pus.
When Chandler visited a number of doctors they mentioned to her a number of possible causes, including fixed drug eruption- a bad skin reaction to a medicine.
Their minds then went to the vaccine trial she was participating in at the time.
She had received her second injection five days before the blisters first developed on her feet.
Rebecca Moore, Chandlers cousin, set up a GoFundMe page, to help Chandler with her medical bill and posted photos of her blistered foot on the page.
The photo of her foot went viral and anti-vaccine activists were quick to criticize the jab.
“Supposedly this is a [vaccine] trial participant. Ready to roll up your sleeve?,” a message read.
“See they are trying to deliberately hurt us with the vaccine,” another Twitter user wrote.
The page initially stated that she’d been a volunteer in the Covid-19 vaccine study and had a ‘severe adverse reaction’, however, it did not clarify that the cause hadn’t been confirmed.
What anti-vaccine influencers quickly discovered was that Chandler never received the actual jab.
According to medical records obtained by BBC, it showed that Chandler received a placebo, a small injection of salt water.
Her sudden foot inflammation was not caused by the vaccine.
After finding out her sores were not caused by the vaccine, Chandler said she began to receive online abuse from people who called her an “idiot”, “drug addict” and “con artist”.
She received messages from anti-vaccine activists chastising her for taking part in the trial, and from people who accused her of spreading fake news.
Chandler told the outlet, “The fact that these anti-vaxxers are using this to fuel their agenda is infuriating.”
However, she acknowledged the wording on her GoFundMe page had been misleading. “I have to assume some culpability for putting my story out there.
“It’s social media. You share it for one second and it can get picked up and go viral. My injury had nothing to do with the vaccine. My bad. People make mistakes.”
