Does a freckle or mole on the male arm prove that the government makes humans? No, that's not true: A viral video claiming that does not provide any evidence that the spot is a mark placed on a human body after it is manufactured by the government. The fact that many people do have a freckle on their arm is a "mere coincidence," board-certified dermatologist Julie K. Karen, M.D., told Lead Stories.
The claim appeared in a 15-second video on Facebook on July 10, 2022, under the title "Who else has one?" It opens:
I have found something that proves the government makes humans. All right, every boy see [inaudible] if you have that freckle right there on your arm
That's not a freckle, that's a mole, no?
Ok they all have it. No fucking way dude.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jul 21 19:49:46 2022 UTC)
The brief video appears to include a TikTok from 2021 when the original claim was made that freckles on a male's arm is proof that the government makes humans.
A similar claim about the freckles went viral for women in May 2019 when a woman posted on social media a photograph of what appeared to be a freckle on her arm with the text, "ladies..... u got a freckle on the middle of ur wrist or is this a myth Imao":
ladies..... u got a freckle on the middle of ur wrist or is this a myth lmao pic.twitter.com/VpwkkeWKTj
-- aaryn ✰ (@aarynwhitley) May 22, 2019
Dermatologist Karen told Lead Stories via email on July 21, 2022, that a marking on a person's skin, which she referred to as a "nevi," the medical term for a mole, is a coincidence:
Nevi can occur anywhere in the body where there are melanocytes. This is the entire cutaneous surface. Nevi tend to be more common in sun-exposed areas. So, two or 2000 individuals having a rather banal, homogenous, medium brown Nevus on the forearm is mere coincidence and frankly, not at all surprising.
With billions of people in the world, I would expect for many people to find doppelgänger moles/nevi in strangers throughout their lifetime.
Karen likened the occurrence of a spot on the arm to the "birthday paradox," which says in a room of just 23 people there is a 50-50 chance of at least two people having the same birthday. In a room of 75 there is a 99.9% chance of at least two people matching. "What seems like a massive coincidence is really just statistics at work," she said.
