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FACT BRIEF

Did a 'rattle head' snake bite a child in the summer of 2021?

By Kaiyah Clarke
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NO

Not only is a social media post's reference to a "rattle head" snake wrong (rattlesnake, perhaps?) but a photo accompanying the post is at least 2 years old, and it is from an incident in which a toddler was bitten by a copperhead snake -- in 2019. The child was treated with anti-venom medication at a hospital.

The photo was part of news coverage of a snakebite case in South Carolina involving a 2-year-old. The child was bitten in the yard of the family home, taken to a hospital and treated.

The social media post asks readers to "please pray for his full recovery." In fact, there is no evidence or indication that the child bitten two years ago did not fully recover. One news story about the incident says only that the child "spent a few days at a hospital in Charleston."

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
WYFF (Greenville, SC) 2-year-old suffers copperhead snake bite in 2019
WBNS (Columbus, OH) South Carolina 2-year-old bitten by copperhead snake
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.