A viral screenshot of a purported CNN headline stated that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was requiring all Democrats to take the updated COVID vaccine in order to qualify to vote for the November 2024 elections.
The claim spread in late August 2024, soon after updated COVID-19 vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The headline stated: "BREAKING: Kamala to require all Democrats to take the updated COVID shot in order to vote in November."
The headline was fabricated. We found no evidence of such a plan, or of such an article on CNN's website. As such, we rate the screenshot as "Fake."
First, no link to an original CNN article accompanied the screenshot, and CNN's website had no such news story. We also did not find such a post on CNN's X or Instagram pages.
Second, the headline in the screenshot had grammatical errors, including a lowercase "democrats" and lowercase "covid." Such errors would not occur in a legitimate CNN headline.
Third, the screenshot was shared and promoted by an X account that previously shared anti-vaccination and anti-mask conspiracy theories related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If it were true that Harris insisted on receiving a vaccine as a qualification to vote, it would have resulted in headline news and vociferous criticism.
A vaccine mandate was imposed on federal employees in 2021, and the mandate ended in 2023. This mandate did not affect anyone's voting rights, and it was intended to protect the safety of employees in the workplace. Harris promoted COVID-19 vaccinations publicly, receiving her first dose on camera as the vice president-elect in December 2020, and urged Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine.