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Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021

Is the Aboriginal population in Australia’s Northern Territory being forcibly vaccinated against COVID-19?

Christiana Dillard, Lead Stories
no

Experts told Lead Stories that COVID-19 vaccination in Aboriginal populations is not compulsory, and the Australian Defence Force called the claim that it was involved in forced vaccinations "emphatically false."

The claims made in an online video clip have been discredited by Australian officials and Aboriginal leaders alike.

In an email to Lead Stories on Nov. 26, 2021, a spokesperson for the National Indigenous Australians Agency said:

"Vaccination for COVID-19 is voluntary — as are all vaccinations in Australia — and people maintain the option to choose. There are some work settings that require a vaccination, but this does not constitute a forced vaccination."

Michael Gunner, chief minister of the Northern Territory, said at a news conference on Nov. 25, 2021, that claims of forced vaccinations are a "huge amount of misinformation" that leads to "dangerous" lies by anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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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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