Northern Territory Chief Minister Debunks Conspiracy The Army Are Forcibly Vaccinating People

Indigenous communities in lockdown in the Northern Territory have strongly refuted conspiracy theories that the army is forcing them to get vaccinated. Posts circulating on social media falsely claim the Australia Defence Force (ADF) are injecting remote residents with the COVID vaccine against their will, according to NITV.

“People are very hurt by the untrue comments being made in the media and social media about their situation,” the Wurli-Wurlinjang Aboriginal Health Service wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “We have been treated with a lot of respect and appreciate all the support being given by these support personnel people.”

“We are in lockdown because we’re in the biggest fight of our lives. We’re trying to keep safe. We’re trying to do the right thing by the community and Katherine. We don’t need people out there creating another flood for us. We don’t appreciate outside people making comments that are untrue.”

The disinformation comes amid a lockdown around the Greater Katherine and Robinson River area that’s in place until December 4. Binjari, a small Aboriginal community around 15 minutes away drive from Katherine, is currently in hard lockdown, while neighbouring homeland Rockhole just transitioned from a hard to a regular lockdown.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt deployed 40 ADF personnel to support COVID-19 efforts around the Katherine, and an additional 25 people to transport isolated locals in regional communities with testing and health care in the same area. While the army has previously assisted with vaccination efforts in aged disability care facilities, they have not been administering COVID jabs to the wider public.

“As we all know, they aren’t carrying weapons — they are carrying fresh food for people,” NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said to media on Thursday, debunking the trolling as internet “BS” being perpetuated by “tinfoil hat wearing tossers sitting in their parents’ basements in Florida”.

“Defence is aware of social media posts claiming the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is forcibly vaccinating or detaining members of the Australian community,” an ADF statement read on Thursday. “These claims are emphatically false.” While the ADF did not comment on whether the efforts were attributable to anti-vax movement, they did confirm that the posts were “based on a theme that has spread globally”.

Katherine’s vaccination rate this week is 83 percent first dose, 77 percent fully jabbed.

Any normal week in Australia: "Why do you have to bring race into everything?

This week in Australia: "Why aren't you speaking out against the forced injection of Aboriginal people in remote communities with Nazi/Soros/Gates microchipped vaccines by army ninjas?"

— Celeste Liddle (@Utopiana) November 25, 2021