A WordPress blog post viewed more than 400,000 times on Facebook warns of the legal implications of being vaccinated against Covid-19 in France. The post, written in French, claims that a man died after getting a Covid-19 vaccination.
“En France, décès après la vaccination d’un grand-père très fortuné, ancien chef d’entreprise parisien de Versailles, avec assurance vie de plusieurs millions d’euro pour le bénéfice de ses enfants et petits-enfants, l’assurance ne rembourse pas et ne paye pas la prime de plusieurs millions d’euro,” it reads.
Google translates this as: “In France, death after vaccination of a very wealthy grandfather, former Parisian entrepreneur from Versailles, with life insurance of several million euros for the benefit of his children and grandchildren, the insurance does not reimburse not and does not pay the premium of several million euros.”
Africa Check has examined a similar claim about life insurance and Covid vaccines in South Africa, and found it to be incorrect. But do French insurers have a different policy? We checked.
Story is ‘fake news’
Africa Check also spoke to Elodie Maume, a corporate lawyer fluent in French based in South Africa. She looked into the story and said it was “fake news”.
“It has been denied by a number of credible news sources. It is a fake news campaign by anti-vaxxers.”
On January 23, 2022, Liberation Check News fact-checked the same claim and found it to be false.
They note in their report that Covid vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency.
Liberation Check News also says the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority, an independent authority that monitors the activities of banks and insurance companies, has refuted the claims.
‘Dangerous misinformation’
A French business news channel, BFM Business, reported the story in July 2021 as an “attempt at dangerous misinformation”.’
The French Insurance Federation, the leading trade organisation in the insurance sector, issued a statement in response to the claim: “La Fédération Française de l’Assurance dément catégoriquement cette rumeur et regrette les tentatives de désinformation sur un sujet de santé publique aussi essentiel que la vaccination. Nous rappelons que les contrats d’assurance vie ne prévoient pas d’exclusions relatives aux conséquences d’une vaccination.”
This means: “The French Insurance Federation categorically denies this rumour and regrets the attempts at misinformation on a public health subject as essential as vaccination. We remind you that life insurance contracts do not provide for exclusions relating to the consequences of vaccination.”
The claim that Covid-19 vaccination will void life insurance in France is false.
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