A video clip has surfaced on social media platforms purportedly showing how actors posed as COVID-19 patients in a Sydney hospital to promote vaccination in the country.
A Facebook user shared the video clip with the caption, “They are selling this thing a little hard, free stuff, money, doughnuts, lottery tickets, and why do you need actors to convince people to take a shot that could help them? Is this a normal course for government and the media in there collusion efforts to misinform the population? Do you feel betrayed by this? If not please tell me why? Are the lies to the population justified for the collective ” Greater Good” of the people? Why not just show real cases and real stats? Not starting a debate on whether the jab is effective or neccessary, just asking what is the motivation behind the lies?(sic)”
The video shows three people – claiming to be COVID-19 patients – lying on the hospital bed urging others to get vaccinated. Following this, it is being claimed that these patients are actually paid ‘COVID actors’.
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FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post and found it to be edited.
On performing the relevant keyword search, we found that viral video is a clip from an episode of “Media Watch“, an Australian TV show which is hosted by investigative journalist Paul Barry.
We found the full episode on YouTube dated September 7, 2021. In the report, the host actually debunked rumours about so-called “crisis actors” and showed that they were genuine COVID-19 patients.
In his show, Barry presented multiple proofs to show that the patients shown in the video weren’t actors. .
In the report, there was a claim that one of the COVID-19 patients sporting a beard is Australian comedian and actor Mitch Garling. Mitch took to his Instagram and stated that a rumour is doing rounds describing him as a ‘COVID actor’, which is a complete lie.
Therefore, we can confirm that an edited clip from a longer report is being shared with a false claim to promote anti-vaccine narrative.
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