Fact Check: Video Demonstrates A Prop Syringe, NOT Vaccine Avoidance By ‘The Elites’

Does video of a syringe with a retracting needle prove that “the elites” faked receiving vaccinations? No, that’s not true: It is generic footage demonstrating the use of a prop syringe for use on stage or during filming. It did not document any high-profile individual using the dummy syringe to avoid vaccination. Entries on social media sharing the video in 2025 were recycling an old claim from March 2021.

The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on March 23, 2025, under the title:

VACCINES FOR THE ELITES.

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Mar 31 15:39:44 2025 UTC)

As seen in the screenshot below showing the keyframe breakdown produced by the InVid verification plugin (archived here), the video did not show faces of specific individuals:

(Source: InVid screenshot taken on Mon Mar 31 15:49:59 2025 UTC)

The original version was uploaded on YouTube on February 11, 2021, under the title:

Stunt syringe.

The description explicitly said that, unlike medical syringes, the prop’s plunger was hollow:

Retractable syringe needle, with a hollow plunger to give the effect that you are injecting or withdrawing liquid.

The clip was unavailable at the time of this writing, and Lead Stories reviewed the version saved on the Internet Archive.

The account that posted the video was linked to an internet page of a Florida-based artist specializing in making movie props and cinematography, whose website had been active at least since 2018.

As of this writing, however, its live version was not available.

Yet, a search for a higher-quality version of the video led to the footage depicting a product sold on Etsy by the same artist in March 2025. The item’s description (archived here) read:

Retractable Stunt Syringe — Realistic Film Prop for Medical Scenes, Special Effects & Theather Productions.

(Source: Etsy screenshot taken on Mon Mar 31 17:00:01 2025 UTC)

The same video was reviewed by Reuters, Myth Detector and Vox Ukraine in March 2021.

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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning health-related topics can be found here.