Did the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrive in Kentucky after the December 10, 2021, tornadoes, and start giving COVID-19 vaccinations to the storm victims instead of blankets or food? No, that's not true: FEMA's director of public affairs told Lead Stories that the claim is false and FEMA is not vaccinating anyone in the affected areas.
The claim originated from an article published by Real Raw News on December 13, 2021, titled "FEMA Arrives in Tornado-Stricken Kentucky-With VACCINATIONS" (archived here) which opened:
The often-sluggish Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrived in Kentucky only hours after a freak mid-December tornado outbreak laid waste entire towns and killed over 100 people in a quad-state massacre. The disaster relief agency, however, brought more Covid-19 vaccinations than it did blankets, food, and bottled water, a clear sign that the Deep State-run organization is still trying to coerce law-abiding Americans into taking the jab.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
FEMA Arrives in Tornado-Stricken Kentucky-With VACCINATIONS - Real Raw News
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Real Raw News screenshot taken on Wed Dec 15 14:29:16 2021 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out to FEMA regarding the claim. In a December 14, 2021, email, FEMA Director of Public Affairs Jaclyn Rothenberg said the claim was not true:
The claim about FEMA arriving with COVID-19 vaccinations is false. We are not conducting any vaccination activities in the affected areas.
A Google search of the key words "fema vaccinating kentucky after tornado" showed no results of reputable media reporting on this claim in the days after the tornado. Google indexes 50,000 news sites.
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and that "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that warns readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items is collected here.
