Many have taken to social media in the past few days to show their ‘magnetic powers’ after receiving a vaccine against COVID-19.
There are reports that have emerged from different places in the country claiming that people have turned ‘magnetic’ after taking the COVID-19 vaccine shot. There are several instances where these claims are being made, men from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, Nashik in Maharashtra, Martam in Sikkim, Udupi in Karnataka and a woman from Bengaluru have now made the same claim that their bodies have become ‘magnetic’ after taking the vaccine.
Videos of men and women sticking metallic items like spoons and coins on their bodies are been shared widely on social media with internet users giving them names like the ‘Udupi Magneto’ and ‘Nashik Magneto’. These videos are going viral on internet.
But experts are skeptical of the claims.
A statement was quickly issued by the Press Information Bureau saying that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and do not make people magnetic.”Several posts/videos claiming that #COVID19 #vaccines can make people magnetic are doing the rounds on social media. COVID-19 vaccines do NOT make people magnetic and are completely SAFE,” read a tweet by PIB.
Several posts/videos claiming that #COVID19 #vaccines can make people magnetic are doing the rounds on social media. #PIBFactCheck:
✅COVID-19 vaccines do NOT make people magnetic and are completely SAFE
Register for #LargestVaccineDrive now and GET VACCINATED ‼️ pic.twitter.com/pqIFaq9Dyt
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 10, 2021
A 50-year-old goldsmith Ramdas Shet in Udupi was the first man who made this claim saying he got magnetic powers. This claim is undergoing further tests to study what caused the objects to stick to his body.
“He had seen a video of objects sticking to a man and decided to test out the same and found that objects like spoons and coins were sticking to him. We are conducting some tests to determine the reason for this,” a doctor handling the case in Udupi told the media according to reports.
Mangaluru based rationalist Narendra Nayak meanwhile issued a statement in the media saying that magnetism is not induced by vaccines and explained that the objects in the videos are sticking to the human body due to surface tension.