Coronavirus

The boy seen on the image below did not develop the COVID-19 Vaccine along with Pfizer

An image of a Turkish immigrant family is being circulated on social media claiming that the “boy in the yellow t-shirt” in the photograph is Dr Ugur Sahin, the CEO of the Germany-based company, BioNTech SE, who developed the COVID-19 vaccine along with Pfizer Inc.

The caption of the post mentions that “A family of Muslim immigrants from Turkey newly arrived in Germany. The boy in the yellow t-shirt went on to lead the team that cracked the Covid vaccine. Uğur Şahin, Physician, Oncologist and Entrepreneur”

Facebook Post | Archive Link 

Fact Check- 

Fact Crescendo found that the photograph was clicked by photographer Candida Hofer in 1979 as part of her series documenting Turk immigrants in Germany. It does not show Dr Ugur Sahin, the CEO of the Germany-based company, BioNTech.

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google, which led us to several websites carrying this image. We found an article on Art Review, where the image has been credited to photographer named Candida Hofer, who clicked this picture as part of her series ‘Türken in Deutschland 1979 (Turks in Germany 1979)”

Archive Link 

We also found the image on Harvard Art Museum’s website.The photographer does not reveal the identity of her subjects, DiasporaTurk, a volunteer community that captures experiences of Turk immigrants in Europe, had uploaded this picture on Twitter on 18th August 2020. In a Twitter thread, the organisation writes that the grandson of the family had reached out to them to clarify that the family is from Aksaray. The father came to Germany in 1965 as a worker… In 1975 he decided to bring his wife and four children to Düsseldorf.”

When translated from Turkish language it further mentions that “The youngest girl became a dentist, the eldest sister became a service worker, and the boy, who has been misidentified as Sahin, went on to become a lathe-leveling master, the tweet further states.”

According to a New York Times article, Sahin is from Iskenderun in Turkey, not Aksaray.

Archive Link

Conclusion- Fact Crescendo found the above-mentioned post to be False. the photograph was clicked by photographer Candida Hofer in 1979 as part of her series documenting Turk immigrants in Germany. It does not show Dr Ugur Sahin, the CEO of the Germany-based company, BioNTech.

Title:The boy seen on the image below did not develop the COVID-19 Vaccine along with Pfizer

Fact Check By: Aavya Ray

Result: False

Aavya Ray

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