Premier of Queensland, Australia, did not fake getting a flu shot

CLAIM: Video shows the premier of Queensland, Australia, Annastacia Palaszczuk, faked getting a flu shot. 

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Social media users are sharing an edited video clip that leaves out the part where Palaszczuk actually received the shot.  

THE FACTS: When Queensland’s premier went before the media to publicize she was getting a flu shot Tuesday, it happened so fast a photographer had to ask for a do over.

“I didn’t even feel it. It was over before it began,” Palaszczuk said after receiving the actual shot, which the medical worker reenacted with the needle covered. 

Social media users, including anti-vaccine supporters, are now sharing a shortened TikTok video that shows only the reenactment of the shot to suggest that government officials want everyone to get vaccinated but will not take the vaccines themselves. 

The TikTok video, which was shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, is overlaid with text that says, “Of course you didn’t feel it with the cap still on the needle.” 

7NewsBrisbane, which covered the event, released the full footage on Twitter. It shows a medical worker wiping Palaszczuk arm before administering the vaccine and placing a Band-Aid over the location of the shot. A photographer then asked that the shot be reenacted and the woman repeated it with a cap on the needle. 

In the reenactment, the cap can be seen on the needle as the medical worker pretends to stick it into the premier’s arm. The video was aired during a segment on coronavirus cases in Queensland, which examined health experts’ concerns about the flu as winter weather approaches in Australia and social distancing measures ease up. 

Palaszczuk also shared the full footage from 7NewsBrisbane on her Twitter account. 

As of Wednesday, Australia has reported 6,746 coronavirus cases and 19 new cases since Tuesday. 

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This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536