A TikTok of a NSW Health official accidentally saying that vaccinated people are being hospitalised with COVID-19 has been shared far and wide by anti-vaxxers, even though the whole thing is literally based off a brain fart which was later corrected.
The video, which features footage from the daily coronavirus press conference on July 25, has already been viewed over half a million times on TikTok, and has been shared either in DMs or across other apps a further 11,500 times.
Let’s be clear: What NSW Health official Dr Jeremy McAnulty meant to say was that everyone currently hospitalised with COVID-19 hadn’t been fully vaccinated. That’s a huge difference, which is why he corrected himself not long after.
“There are a number of people in hospital, 141 people are in hospital with COVID at present, and 43 are in intensive care, 18 of whom require ventilation. So this is a very serious disease,” McAnulty said at around the 8:00 mark of the press conference last month.
“All but one are vaccinated, one person has just received one dose of a vaccine.”
Later at the press conference, at around the 36:00 mark, a reporter asked McAnulty to clarify what he meant because it sounded, well, wrong.
“Thank you, yes, I think I misspoke before,” McAnulty said.
“So of the 43 people in intensive care units, 42 have not been vaccinated, and one person had just one dose of a vaccine.”
This statistic is in line with what’s been announced literally every other day, and it actually shows how effective the vaccines are. But the TikTok being shared by anti-vaxxers doesn’t include the correction. How convenient.
We’ve chosen not to embed the video so as not to promote it any further, but you can watch a copy of it below to see just how misleading it is.
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The person who uploaded the TikTok also has a bunch of other videos featuring highly questionable vaccine information or just taking news soundbites out of context.
She’s even shared speeches and interviews by newly-independent MP Craig Kelly, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, and former Liberal-turned-independent Senator Cory Bernardi.
Thankfully, TikTok automatically links to accurate and up-to-date info about vaccines and COVID-19 from World Health Organisation underneath those videos.
Let’s hope people click on that info instead.
All adult Aussies (yep, even if those of us under 40) are currently able to get the safe and effective AstraZeneca vaccine through a GP. Talk to a doctor to see if it’s right for you.
Alternatively, you can triple-check to see if you’re eligible for the Pfizer vaccine here.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
