CoronaCheck is RMIT ABC Fact Check's weekly email newsletter dedicated to fighting the misinformation infodemic surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
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In this week's CoronaCheck, we debunk claims linking the outbreak of Japanese encephalitis to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine and investigate suggestions that Centrelink payments will be tied to COVID-19 vaccine status.
We also get to the bottom of Russian propaganda involving US biolabs in Ukraine, and announce RMIT FactLab's new partnership with Meta.
A Pfizer document outlining potential adverse events following vaccination for COVID-19 is again being shared online as anti-vaxxers incorrectly link the report to an Australian outbreak of Japanese encephalitis.
One claim, shared as a caption overlaid on an image of the Pfizer document, alleges that "there is NO Japanese encephalitis" and that news reports about an outbreak were "cover stories" designed to "distract you from the real cause".
Covered in CoronaCheck in detail last week, the Pfizer document contains a list of so-called "adverse events of special interest" (AESIs). That list includes a number of different types of encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain.
Notably, however, the list of AESIs does not include Japanese encephalitis, which, as...
A person in his 30s who demanded compensation for alleged foreign substances in cup noodles and the absence of meat in stir-fried pork was sentenced to prison in both the first trial and the appel...