FACT-CHECK: Children in Australia are NOT being forcibly separated from their parents and given the COVID-19 vaccine

Claim: Children in Australia are being forcibly separated from their parents and given the COVID-19 vaccine

Source: WhatsApp Video

Verdict: FALSE

Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu

Are children in Australia being forcibly separated from their parents and given the COVID-19 vaccine? That is the claim being made in a 3 minutes and 40 seconds long video circulating on WhatsApp in Ghana.

The video which has been tagged by WhatsApp as “forwarded many times” shows a Caucasian woman promoting conspiracies about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine deployment. “Have you heard about what is happening in Australia? Children are being taken away from their parents to go get the shots,” the lady said.

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Meanwhile, the video clip partly showed a scene where a child is seen being separated from a man [allegedly his parent] by some persons in protective clothing while police officials restrained the man on the floor.

So, how true is the claim?

Fact-check

The Police department in the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria has debunked the claim.

“Victoria Police can confirm this is inaccurate. This vision was in no way related to Covid/vaccinations or testing. For the privacy of those involved, we will not be providing any further details,” the verified Twitter handle of Victoria Police said on August 20.

This was in response to a Tweet that was making similar claims and had garnered more than 5,000 interactions including retweets and likes.

Victoria Police can confirm this is inaccurate. This vision was in no way related to Covid/vaccinations or testing. For the privacy of those involved, we will not be providing any further details.

— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) August 20, 2021

The video has since gone viral in other countries and is being portrayed in different contexts.

This has meant other credible fact-checking platforms including Reuters, Australia Associated Press and Fakenews. pl – Poland have flagged it as false.

Verdict

The claim that children in Australia are being forcibly taken from their parents and given the COVID-19 vaccine is FALSE.