Will all Australians who are not vaccinated by the end of the year be put into "isolation camps"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson at 7News Australia told Lead Stories that the account in which this claim was made is fake. Also, a representative of the Australian Government Department of Health told Lead Stories that this post is "false."
The claim appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) published on September 13, 2021. The post featured a screenshot of an image from a purported Instagram account "7newsvictoria." The text in the screenshot reads:
BREAKING NEWS - It's believed that all Australians who are not fully vaccinated by the end of this year, will be put into isolation camps. Victoria is planning to go ahead with this to prevent further snap lockdowns happening later in the year.
#7NEWS
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
The caption continued:
Control, separation, isolation .... But God has another plan - Jeff Jansen credit
The Instagram account "7newsvictoria" does not exist.
There is no "breaking news" post like this on 7NEWS Melbourne, which is the official Instagram account of 7NEWS Australia's Victoria Region. 7NEWS also has verified social media handles listed by cities like Melbourne -- not states like Victoria.
Lead Stories reached out to 7News Australia to verify whether or not any recent breaking news had been published on their platform concerning any mandates stating Australian citizens who are not vaccinated will be placed into isolation camps by the end of the year. A 7News spokesperson responded via email on September 14, 2021:
This is fake. 7NEWS has never published this and the account is fake.
Lead Stories reached out to the Australian Government Department of Health regarding the "isolation camps" claim. A representative of the department of health responded in a September 14, 2021, email:
This post is false.
