A video with a description Eight days of protest in Poland against mandatory vaccination was posted on May 9 on a Facebook page Pravo na slobodu (Right to Freedom). The video displays tens of thousands of citizens gathered on the streets. Analysis of the video confirms its authenticity as well as the fact that the video was not created in May this year as it is claimed on Facebook pages that shared it. The video was created in Warsaw during the mass protests in June 2017 across Poland and the reason behind this is the new judiciary reform.
At the time of writing, the video on the page Pravo na Slobodu has more than 165k of views and almost 6k of shares. Besides this page, the video was posted by other pages supporting anti-vaxxers and promoting conspiracy theories – Srpska čast (Serbian Honor), STOP 5G Srbija, Glavna grupa stranke Ivana Pernara (the Main Group of Ivan Pernar’s Party) etc. – in other words, 106 of them in total. Judging by the comments, a significant number of followers perceived this post as true and invited to the protests in their country. Those who tried to point out to this hoax were outnumbered.
Notion and consequences of COVID-19 brought the issue of vaccine usage and effectiveness to the fore. This example clearly demonstrates that the anti-vaccination movements and theories are present and active as well as that people easily believe everything they read on social media.
Knowing that the measures against spread of coronavirus are on force in Poland just like in the majority of countries (including measures banning every type of gathering), it is clear that the mass protests would definitely be banned. After all, if this event even occurred during pandemic, it would be the breaking news in the world media.