Social media users report that the Australians who have not passed vaccination from Covid-19 are waiting for large fines and even imprisonment if they sneeze in the presence of other people. We checked the reliability of such publications.

In "VKontakte", Facebook And Twitter In mid -December 2021, publications began to appear, talking about the recently made decision of the Australian authorities. According to these reports, starting on December 17, a new law enters into force on the Green Continent, providing for unvaccinated citizens a fine of up to $ 13,000 or imprisonment for up to six months for sneezing and coughing in public places.

In April 2020, Prime Minister and Minister of Health of the Australian state of Queensland released A joint statement that was informed citizens about new measures to combat the spread of coronavirus. In particular, this statement said: “People who who deliberately They cough, sneeze or spit on employees and workers, including sellers, can be fined up to 13,345 Australian dollars. ” Explaining such a decision, the ministers emphasized that they got acquainted with several cases of such threats in Queensland, which were characterized as “disgusting”. The new rule is designed to protect “everyone who works or travels to work during the pandemia of Covid-19”, such as doctors, police, firefighters, sellers in grocery stores, couriers and teachers.

These rules as a punishment Provided Payment of a fine. He Could be Assigned at the place of the offense (in this case, the violator will pay 1335 Australian dollars) or later by court decision (but then the size of the fine will increase by more than ten times). There was no punishment in the form of imprisonment then.

In August 2021, Queensland authorities Updated previously introduced rules. In the new version of the law, the size of the fine was slightly increased (up to 1378 Australian dollars on the spot and 13,785 by court decision), and the maximum punishment was imprisonment for up to six months.

None of the two legislative acts adopted by the Queensland Government say that the rules regarding intentional sneezing are applied only to unique citizens. “These measures are not aimed at unvaccinated people. If you go to the store, a coffee shop or somewhere else and specially punch at someone to scare, it doesn’t matter whether you are vaccinated or not, you are committing a crime, ”- reported Representative of the state of the state healthcare in the commentary of the Associated Press.

Thus, the legislative norms described in Internet users have not been introduced since December 17-they have been in force for a long time. At the same time, existing anti -oral measures are interpreted incorrectly. The rule applies to both vaccinated and unevaccinated citizens, and a fine or imprisonment is punishment exclusively for intentional, and not for any sneezing or cough, and only if this action is directed to an employee of a particular institution. Moreover, the authors of the audited publications lower two important details in their texts: firstly, the Australian dollar is not equal to the US dollar (the maximum fine is equivalent to about $ 9200 at the time of publication of this audit, but not $ 13,000), and secondly, the rules apply only to Queensland, but not all over Australia.