coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus, COVID vaccine, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, COVID masks
A new flyer being dropped in Canberrans’ letterboxes warns the COVID-19 vaccine can “steal your soul”, and masks are “a symbol of subservience to evil”. ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on Monday blasted the outrageous claims. She said such disinformation put people’s health at risk. “Fortunately, the vast majority of Canberrans are unlikely to be swayed by this material,” she said. “However, there is always a risk that some people will take it seriously and become less trusting of credible health information.” ACT Policing said they were only aware of the flyers having been distributed in Reid. The flyers were labelled “important COVID-19 health warning” and spouted that COVID-19 tests were designed to infect and control people, and “command signals to the virus”. They warned against wearing “the mask of the beast”, and falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines contained “dangerous poisons to sterilise the population”, as well as tracking chips and a dormant version of the virus the United Nations would later turn on. ACT Policing did not confirm the source of the flyers, despite them bearing a striking resemblance to ones distributed at Garran mid-last year. A spokesman said people should refer to trusted government sources for information about COVID-19, and “always be wary of unsolicited letters, pamphlets or advertisements received in the mail that could contain misinformation”. Reid resident Beatrice Guppy said she was in disbelief and furious to receive the latest flyer containing false information in her letterbox. “My first reaction was to toss it into the bin, but then I thought that the wider community needs to be made aware of these dangerous, ignorant bigots,” Ms Guppy said. The comments came on Monday as Ms Stephen-Smith answered questions about the ACT’s legitimate plan to tackle COVID-19. READ MORE: She clarified that Canberrans aged under 50 could still give their consent to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, after Australia’s vaccine advisory group recommended against it because of the extremely low risk of blood clots. The Minister said she was still working out when Canberrans under 50 who weren’t already eligible to get a Pfizer vaccine at the Garran Surge Centre would be allowed to. The centre was still only offering Pfizer jabs to front-line health workers who’d been invited to get it there. Ms Stephen-Smith said those people who had been invited could call the surge centre’s booking line, which had re-opened on Monday. “In relation to those people who would have otherwise been going through a GP who are under 50 but have an underlying health condition … [we’re considering] how we re-calibrate the program to move some of those people into the Pfizer stream in the surge centre,” she said. “I would ask those people not to call the surge centre line [yet], even if you have the phone number.” Ms Stephen-Smith said she hadn’t seen any indication that shipments of the Pfizer vaccine into Australia would significantly increase, and therefore she didn’t expect the ACT’s stock to significantly increase in the coming weeks. She said it made “absolute sense” for larger jurisdictions like Victoria to pause the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine to under 50s, given the advice from Australia’s vaccine advisory group. “For us, we’ve got one [government vaccination] centre, we had officials working overnight to understand what appointments were coming up the following day, and to move people into the appropriate streams,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “I don’t think that’s an inconsistency, I think it’s just a reflection of the different operating environments that [all the states and territories have].” The Minister said that, as at Monday, all the general practitioners in the ACT who had initially expressed interest in helping with the vaccine rollout had come on board to do so. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
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A new flyer being dropped in Canberrans’ letterboxes warns the COVID-19 vaccine can “steal your soul”, and masks are “a symbol of subservience to evil”.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith on Monday blasted the outrageous claims. She said such disinformation put people’s health at risk.
“Fortunately, the vast majority of Canberrans are unlikely to be swayed by this material,” she said.
“However, there is always a risk that some people will take it seriously and become less trusting of credible health information.”
ACT Policing said they were only aware of the flyers having been distributed in Reid.
The flyers were labelled “important COVID-19 health warning” and spouted that COVID-19 tests were designed to infect and control people, and “command signals to the virus”.
The flyer, which was sent to Reid residents. Picture: Beatrice Guppy
They warned against wearing “the mask of the beast”, and falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines contained “dangerous poisons to sterilise the population”, as well as tracking chips and a dormant version of the virus the United Nations would later turn on.
ACT Policing did not confirm the source of the flyers, despite them bearing a striking resemblance to ones distributed at Garran mid-last year.
A spokesman said people should refer to trusted government sources for information about COVID-19, and “always be wary of unsolicited letters, pamphlets or advertisements received in the mail that could contain misinformation”.
Reid resident Beatrice Guppy said she was in disbelief and furious to receive the latest flyer containing false information in her letterbox.
“My first reaction was to toss it into the bin, but then I thought that the wider community needs to be made aware of these dangerous, ignorant bigots,” Ms Guppy said.
The comments came on Monday as Ms Stephen-Smith answered questions about the ACT’s legitimate plan to tackle COVID-19.
She clarified that Canberrans aged under 50 could still give their consent to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, after Australia’s vaccine advisory group recommended against it because of the extremely low risk of blood clots.
The Minister said she was still working out when Canberrans under 50 who weren’t already eligible to get a Pfizer vaccine at the Garran Surge Centre would be allowed to.
The centre was still only offering Pfizer jabs to front-line health workers who’d been invited to get it there.
Ms Stephen-Smith said those people who had been invited could call the surge centre’s booking line, which had re-opened on Monday.
“In relation to those people who would have otherwise been going through a GP who are under 50 but have an underlying health condition … [we’re considering] how we re-calibrate the program to move some of those people into the Pfizer stream in the surge centre,” she said.
“I would ask those people not to call the surge centre line [yet], even if you have the phone number.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said she hadn’t seen any indication that shipments of the Pfizer vaccine into Australia would significantly increase, and therefore she didn’t expect the ACT’s stock to significantly increase in the coming weeks.
She said it made “absolute sense” for larger jurisdictions like Victoria to pause the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine to under 50s, given the advice from Australia’s vaccine advisory group.
“For us, we’ve got one [government vaccination] centre, we had officials working overnight to understand what appointments were coming up the following day, and to move people into the appropriate streams,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“I don’t think that’s an inconsistency, I think it’s just a reflection of the different operating environments that [all the states and territories have].”
The Minister said that, as at Monday, all the general practitioners in the ACT who had initially expressed interest in helping with the vaccine rollout had come on board to do so.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
