Social media users have created a false correlation between the rise of zombie deer disease cases and animal COVID-19 vaccines.
And some are blaming Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic foundation for it.
A Jan. 1 Instagram post caption claimed that “over 100 million American wildlife were vaccinated through a program funded by the Zuckerberg Charity Foundation,” misnaming the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative founded by Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, his wife. “Now, a chilling development known as the zombie deer virus is sweeping across 32 states, affecting deer with disturbing neurological symptoms.”
In November, Yellowstone National Park said a deer that died in the park the previous month had chronic wasting disease, also known as zombie deer disease. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said zombie deer disease has been detected in free-ranging deer, elk or moose in at least 31 states and three Canadian provinces, but it had nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccines.
The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal, progressive, neurodegenerative ailment affecting deer, elk, reindeer and moose. Its symptoms include weight loss and stumbling. The disease is caused by “prions,” transmissible abnormal proteins that trigger other proteins to irregularly fold, causing brain damage , according to the CDC. According to the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the disease’s first case was discovered in 1967 in a deer in Colorado.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has partnerships with 42 organizations to respond to COVID-19. None of the partnerships include a program to vaccinate wildlife. Patricia Condon, a communications manager for the organization, said that it does “not fund such a program” and that all of its grants are publicly disclosed in a database on its website.
An Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services spokesperson told PolitiFact via email that there is no approved COVID-19 vaccine for wildlife.
A Pfizer subsidiary, Zoetis, has made a COVID-19 animal vaccine for zoo animals. Christina Lood, a Zoetis spokesperson, said her company has donated the vaccine to licensed veterinarians but has not provided the vaccine to organizations that vaccinate wildlife.
We rate the claim that the outbreak of zombie deer disease is connected to the vaccination of 100 million American wildlife False.
