Did the Romanian government close all vaccine centers because 70% of "epic" resistance from citizens? No, that's not true: The claim offers as proof a video taken at a 2017 political protest in Bucharest that had nothing to do with the virus or vaccines. The Romanian government released a statement saying that the vaccine centers were temporarily closed and would be reopened as demand increased.
The claim appeared as a video published on Twitter on September 20, 2021 (archived here) which opened:
"This is absolutely EPIC.. Romanian government has closed all vaccine centres because 70% of the citizens won't get the jab. Coercion did not work. RESISTANCE ????❤️???? https://t.co/pL2VkZ35JS"
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Wed Sep 22 17:16:22 2021 UTC)
The "epic" video was taken in 2017 at a protest in the Romanian capital against the Social Democrat government's attempts to diminish efforts to curb corruption in the government, as Reuters reported in an article debunking a similar claim. The video has been falsely used to "prove" crowd size in multiple claims regarding COVID-19 protests but it has nothing to do with COVID-19.
Twitter user @paul2ivan posted the video in February of 2017:
#Bucharest lighting up. #ruleoflaw #anticorruption #democracy #peoplepower #romanianprotests #Romania #EU pic.twitter.com/kf6RBnd757
-- Paul Ivan (@paul2ivan) February 5, 2017
Romanian vaccination centers have been temporarily closed an official at the communication group of the National Coordinating Committee for Activities on Vaccination against Covid-19 (CNCAV) told AFP Fact Check on September 3, 2021:
The centres have not been closed permanently. The activity was temporarily stopped and will be resumed with the increase of Romanians' adherence to vaccination against Covid-19.
About 27% of Romanian residents have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to multiple vaccination data sites, including Our World In Data.
(Source: Our World In Data screenshot taken Wed Sept 22 at 18:12:44 2021 UTC)
