False: The Australian army is forcing people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and quarantining unvaccinated people.

By: Ankita Kulkarni
September 6 2021

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The video has been edited to mislead people. The army is not forcing people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. A video that has gone viral on social media claims that people in Australia are being chased by the police and are forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine. We fragmented the video into keyframes to perform an image reverse search and found that the video in question contradicted what was actually written in the caption. The video actually shows police arresting the demonstrators during anti-lockdown protests held in Sydney on July 24. The event was covered by various media outlets during which thousands of people protested from inner Sydney’s Victoria Park to Town Hall and broke through a police barrier. Many were arrested and fined by the police. Vaccination for COVID-19 is not mandatory in Australia, according to the Health Department. Moreover, the military has been assisting the Australian government in compliance management, logistics, specialist staff support, and other things to tackle the pandemic as part of Operation COVID-19 ASSIST. The video does not show the police forcing COVID-19 vaccination, and hence we mark it as false. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.