Outside Canada · Australia / COVID media clip
Australian biotech COVID-treatment clip: the “vaccine death treatment” version leaves out the correction
A TikTok reposts a 2021 “on this day” news clip that sounds like an anchor said an Australian biotech company had a treatment to stop people dying from a COVID vaccine. The full source trail says that framing is misleading: the original report was about an investigational treatment for severe COVID-19 disease, and the presenter corrected herself from “Covid vaccine” to “Covid-19.”
Short answer
The clip is not proof of a vaccine-death treatment. AFP already checked this wording: the presenter misspoke, then corrected herself. ABC’s article and the biotech’s own release describe IC14 as a proposed treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with respiratory disease.
What the TikTok shows
- Creator: @legitimacy101 / Phantasm
- Caption: “#onthisday on this day lmao....can't make this stuff up. #pie #in #the #face”
- Visible meme overlay: “You literally can’t make this shit up haha,” “SERIOUSLY,” and “On this day Jul 26, 2021.”
- Captured audio begins: “An Australian biotech company has developed a new treatment it hopes will prevent people dying from COVID vaccine.”
What the original source trail says
- AFP Fact Check says multiple posts used an edited clip to imply treatment for COVID-vaccine deaths, but the full news report was about a drug intended to prevent deaths from COVID-19 disease.
- ABC News Australia reported on April 16, 2021 that a Brisbane biotech company led by immunologist Professor Ian Frazer was trialling drug IC14 in severely ill COVID-19 patients in the United States.
- Implicit Bioscience described IC14 as an investigational anti-CD14 monoclonal antibody for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with respiratory disease and low blood oxygen, in combination with remdesivir.
- Business News Australia reported the same Phase 2 trial, sponsored and funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Evidence table
| Claim | Status | Source-trail note |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor said “COVID vaccine.” | True but incomplete | AFP says she immediately corrected it to “COVID-19” in the full clip. |
| Australian biotech had a treatment for vaccine deaths. | Misleading / not supported | ABC, AFP and Implicit say the trial concerned severe COVID-19 respiratory disease. |
| IC14 was being trialled in the U.S. | Verified | ABC, Business News Australia and Implicit Bioscience describe the trial. |
| This TikTok is useful for media-literacy watching. | Yes | It shows how a corrected news slip can be recirculated years later without context. |
PBC note
PBC will track outside-Canada clips that influence Canadian readers, but recycled pandemic clips need careful source handling. A social clip can expose a real broadcast mistake while still creating a false takeaway if the correction and original article are removed.
Sources saved
- AFP Fact Check — misleadingly edited Australian COVID-treatment report.
- ABC News Australia — Brisbane biotech IC14 trial story.
- Business News Australia — Implicit Bioscience Phase 2 trial report.
- Implicit Bioscience — IC14 COVID-19 U.S. clinical trial media release.