{"id":1260,"date":"2021-11-23T16:48:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/23\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennick-floods-facebook-with-vaccine-posts-he-admits-may-not-be-100-accurate-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T16:48:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:48:41","slug":"liberal-mp-gerard-rennick-floods-facebook-with-vaccine-posts-he-admits-may-not-be-100-accurate-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/23\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennick-floods-facebook-with-vaccine-posts-he-admits-may-not-be-100-accurate-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal MP Gerard Rennick floods Facebook with vaccine posts he admits may not be \u2018100% accurate\u2019 &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Senator denies sharing claims of Covid vaccine side-effects to boost profile, saying he is \u2018moved\u2019 by people\u2019s stories<br \/>Last modified on Mon 22 Nov 2021 16.33 GMT<br \/>An Australian government senator has shared content from an anti-vaccination leader who previously called for the execution of Jacinda Ardern, while posting a deluge of stories from other people about vaccine side-effects he admits he can\u2019t verify.<br \/>Queensland Liberal party senator Gerard Rennick has seen his Facebook following explode by more than 500% in the past three months since he began sharing testimonials of people claiming to have suffered severe side-effects after receiving Covid-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>Delivered without context and in most cases without the person\u2019s full name, the posts include the claims of people who say they developed severe conditions not linked to any known vaccine side-effect, including appendicitis, a stutter, and severe neurological conditions.<br \/>Many of the claims shared by Rennick are disputed by expert medical bodies such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration. In a number of cases the person whose story the Liberal senator shared reveals a pre-existing vaccine hesitancy or aversion.<br \/>\u201cThanks [Victorian premier] Dan Andrews your mandated vaccine that I had to have in order to work and support my family resulted in this,\u201d wrote one man, whose story Rennick shared and who claimed to have developed appendicitis after receiving the vaccine.<br \/>In one case, Rennick shared multiple posts by a woman from New South Wales who said she had developed blood clots \u201call through my legs, stomach and through both lungs\u201d after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.<br \/>\u201cI never wanted to get [the vaccine] because I was genuinely scared of running the risk. I wish I had never gotten it &amp; I could have my healthy body back,\u201d the woman wrote in a widely-shared post on social media.<br \/>While rare cases of clotting have been associated with some vaccines including AstraZeneca, the TGA told the Guardian there had been no reported cases associated with people who received the Pfizer vaccine in Australia.<br \/>In another post four days ago, Rennick posted a letter penned by a \u201cretired GP\u201d from New Zealand railing against the Medical Council of New Zealand and falsely linking vaccines with still births.<br \/>The retired GP, who the Guardian has not named to avoid boosting her profile, accused New Zealand\u2019s top doctors of having \u201cblood on your hands\u201d and called for them to stand trial for crimes against humanity.<br \/>When sharing the letter, Rennick said retired GPs \u201chave a lot of credibility\u201d because they could no longer be sacked for speaking out.<br \/>Four weeks before Rennick\u2019s post, the woman said Ardern, the prime minister of Australia\u2019s ally and closest neighbour New Zealand, would be executed for her government\u2019s vaccination program.<br \/>The doctor called for Ardern to stand trial for crimes against humanity and said \u201cthis woman is going to get her own l-e-t-h-a-l injection when the international criminal court sits for Nuremberg two\u201d, according to New Zealand news outlet Stuff.<br \/>In an earlier post in August, the same woman wrote: \u201cCrimes against humanity deserve the sentence of execution&#8230; Jacinda Chris Ashley and the media had better beware [sic].\u201d<br \/>Rennick deleted the post after being contacted by the Guardian, conceding he had realised it to be \u201cfake\u201d.<br \/>\u201cI try to verify this stuff, I thought it seemed OK,\u201d he said about the post. \u201cI\u2019m a bit annoyed about it.\u201d<br \/>His post had been shared 1,600 times before it was deleted.<br \/>Rennick said he was unaware of the woman\u2019s previous comments about Ardern, and conceded he \u201cshould have\u201d checked the source of the letter before sharing it.<br \/>Amid increasing concern about the contribution elected MPs in Australia have made to the spread of misinformation, Rennick admitted he wasn\u2019t sure whether the stories from other people he posted were all true.<br \/>\u201cI had it sent to me from someone else. Like I said, I\u2019m not going to get everything 100% right,\u201d he said.<br \/>\u201cDid you get all of your school work right when you were at school?\u201d<br \/>But he claimed he did not have a duty to verify the claims or to provide context about the low overall risk associated with Covid vaccination because of the misinformation labels <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/facebook\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Facebook<\/a> frequently attaches to his posts.<br \/>\u201cI cant ask for their medical records,\u201d he told the Guardian on Monday.<br \/>\u201cIs it 100% accurate? I can\u2019t guarantee that and I\u2019ve never said that, and that\u2019s why I say it\u2019s someone\u2019s story. It\u2019s not my story, I\u2019m telling someones else\u2019s story.\u201d<br \/>Rennick, along with fellow Liberal senator Alex Antic, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2021\/nov\/01\/liberal-senator-gerard-rennick-to-withhold-vote-in-protest-against-covid-vaccine-mandates\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">threatened to withhold his vote<\/a> from the government unless it passed an anti-vaccine mandate bill. Rennick, Antic, and three other government senators split with the Coalition and voted for the bill, but it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2021\/nov\/22\/one-nation-anti-vaccine-mandate-bill-rejected-despite-support-from-five-coalition-senators\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">ultimately failed in the Senate<\/a>.<br \/>Rennick\u2019s posts against vaccination have coincided with a massive boost to his Facebook following. He had just 4,068 followers this time last year, but his following has since surged to more than 79,000 while engagement with his posts is also much higher. <br \/>He has so far had more than 756,000 interactions on his posts this month, including roughly 200,000 shares. He was getting about 1,900 interactions per month in November 2020.<br \/>But the senator denied he was sharing the posts to increase his public profile, saying he was \u201cmoved\u201d by people\u2019s stories.<br \/>\u201cI\u2019m not doing it for that at all, you can make that accusation [but] I\u2019m not winning any friends doing this, I\u2019m copping lots of pile on in the media, I\u2019m just moved by the fact people have had serious [issues],\u201d he said.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/guardian-australia-morning-mail\/2014\/jun\/24\/-sp-guardian-australias-morning-mail-subscribe-by-email?CMP=copyembed\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning<\/a><br \/><strong><br \/><\/strong>The explosion in his Facebook following poses serious questions about the company\u2019s strategy for dealing with anti-vaccination content.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s policy is to try to restrict the distribution of content that misleads or sensationalises vaccine side-effects, even where it doesn\u2019t directly breach its other policies.<br \/>\u201cBased on input from experts in health communication and related fields, we are also taking additional steps amid the pandemic to reduce the distribution of content that does not violate our policies but may present misleading or sensationalised information about vaccines in a way that would be likely to discourage vaccinations, as outlined in more detail below.\u201d<br \/>Facebook has not removed any of Rennick\u2019s posts.<br \/>Speaking generally about its policy, a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook\u2019s new company name, said it does not allow anyone \u201cincluding public figures\u201d to share misinformation about Covid-19 if it could lead to imminent physical harm. A spokesperson also said the company does not allow \u201cmisinformation about Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts\u201d.<br \/>\u201cPages or accounts who repeatedly breach these rules will have restrictions placed on their page, and repeat offenders will be removed from Facebook\u201d<br \/>Facebook has previously removed Craig Kelly\u2019s page for breaching misinformation policies and has removed more than 20m pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram for containing misinformation<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2021\/nov\/23\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennick-floods-facebook-with-vaccine-posts-he-admits-may-not-be-100-accurate\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator denies sharing claims of Covid vaccine side-effects to boost profile, saying he is \u2018moved\u2019 by people\u2019s storiesLast modified on Mon 22 Nov 2021 16.33 GMTAn Australian government senator has shared content from an anti-vaccination leader who previously called for the execution of Jacinda Ardern, while posting a deluge of stories from other people about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}