Scared of getting vaccinated? Scareder still of needles? Well, a new service that’s appeared on Facebook could be just what you’re looking for.
An unidentified person or company in Victoria – and this is apparently not a joke – is selling fake prosthetic arms for the princely sum of $1500 for those people who want to escape the jab but still claim a vaccination passport from the government.
The ad for the plastic arm was first spotted on the Victoria – Sell You Stuff Facebook page.
The ad reads that the fake arm can be used on either the “left or right” arm and can be conveniently hidden “under a winter jacket to disguise your good arm”. Even better, it’s “available in various skin colours” and comes with “registered express delivery”.
Naturally, the whole thing was quickly called out by Twitter users who universally agreed a GP would have to be pretty dumb to know they weren’t injected a real arm.
One person tweeted: “If you go to get vaccinated and the person vaccinating you cannot tell the difference between your arm and a prosthetic arm, leave and go get vaccinated by someone else.”
Another joked: “Microwaving my prosthetic arm before my appointment so it feels warm to the touch.”
“This has to be a joke, right? Or active trolling? They’ll pay $1500 to get a fake arm and put on a coat (how do you get the shot under the coat?) to disguise their arm and avoid a free shot that will save their lives and those around them?” said another.
It’s unclear if the fake arm breaks any laws or contravenes Facebook’s own ban on anti-vaccine content.
In February this year, Facebook announced a worldwide ban on vaccine misinformation and said it would remove posts with false claims about all vaccines.
The new community guidelines applied to user-generated posts as well as paid advertisements, which were already banned from including such misinformation. Instagram users faced the same restrictions.
However, the tech giant has been regularly called out for not doing enough to enforce the bans.
At the time, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said: “We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules. We’ll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks.”
