Fact Check-SKYCovion vaccine is not sprayed from aircraft

A South Korean COVID-19 vaccine recently authorised in Britain is administered by injection, not sprayed into the sky from aircraft, as social media posts falsely claim.

The SKYCovion vaccine, developed by South Korean biotech company SK bioscience and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), was authorised under its parent company SK Chemicals by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on May 26 after meeting the regulator’s standards for safety, quality and effectiveness and following advice from the UK government’s independent medicines committee (here).

Some social media users have since been saying that SKYCovion will be sprayed on people from aircraft in a possible misinterpretation of the vaccine’s name (here).

Early references on Twitter to SKYCovion following its UK authorisation mention “chemtrails”, a conspiracy theory about chemicals dispersed by aircraft vapour trails, and claim that the vaccine is sprayed (here and here).

One post here called the vaccine a “chemical spray mRNA”, adding: “UK goverment officially approve a plan to force vaccinate the entire nation through the air we breathe”.

However, the vaccine is not based on mRNA and is administered through intramuscular injection, according to the MHRA and SK bioscience.

SKYCovion product information on the UK government website states that the vaccine is for “intramuscular injection only, preferably in the deltoid muscle of the upper arm” (here).

It is given as two injections four weeks apart, according to the documentation.

An SK bioscience spokesperson reiterated that SKYCovion should be injected intramuscularly in two doses four weeks apart.

The spokesperson added: “‘SKY’ is a brand name for vaccines developed by SK bioscience, which of course doesn’t have do with aircrafts at all.”

SK bioscience uses “SKY” in brand names for other vaccines, including flu vaccine SKYCellflu and chickenpox vaccine SKYVaricella (here, here).

SKYCovion is not an mRNA vaccine but has a traditional protein-antigen design. The antigen particle, studded with pieces of SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein (here), is paired with an immune-boosting adjuvant from GSK that is already used in other common vaccines (here, here).

VERDICT

False. The SKYCovion vaccine authorised in Britain is injected intramuscularly, not sprayed from the sky.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work (here) .