Doctors’ association concerned about COVID-19 vaccines, wants debate
The fifth COVID booster shot became available this week. The Federal Government recommends that all adults aged 65 and older, and all adults aged 18 to 64 at risk of severe COVID-19, or who have disability with significant or complex health needs, should get the vaccine dose. All adults aged 18 to 64 without risk factors, and at-risk children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 should consider the jab, the government suggests.
“An additional COVID-19 booster dose is anticipated to address waning of protection against severe COVID-19 prior to winter,” the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) states. “This will provide an increase in protection against severe illness and protect the healthcare system during a time of high demand.”
But some doctors are sceptical of the COVID-19 vaccine, and urge caution.
Among them is Dr Christopher Neil, cardiologist and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and president of the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS), a group of doctors who want to provide an alternate voice to the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
“There has to be an acknowledgement that this recommendation has been made despite unprecedented signals of harm and a stifling of debate,” Dr Neil said.
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Dr Christopher Neil, president of AMPS. Photo supplied
Dr Christopher Neil, president of AMPS. Photo supplied
Doctors’ association concerned about COVID-19 vaccines, wants debate
Newstime Media
February 24, 2023
The fifth COVID booster shot became available this week. The Federal Government recommends that all adults aged 65 and older, and all adults aged 18 to 64 at risk of severe COVID-19, or who have disability with significant or complex health needs, should get the vaccine dose. All adults aged 18 to 64 without risk factors, and at-risk children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 should consider the jab, the government suggests.
“An additional COVID-19 booster dose is anticipated to address waning of protection against severe COVID-19 prior to winter,” the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) states. “This will provide an increase in protection against severe illness and protect the healthcare system during a time of high demand.”
But some doctors are sceptical of the COVID-19 vaccine, and urge caution.
Among them is Dr Christopher Neil, cardiologist and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and president of the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS), a group of doctors who want to provide an alternate voice to the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
“There has to be an acknowledgement that this recommendation has been made despite unprecedented signals of harm and a stifling of debate,” Dr Neil said.
He was in Canberra earlier this month to host an event discussing Australia’s COVID-19 response, meet federal politicians – including Senators Ralph Babet (United Australia Party), Gerard Rennick (Liberal National Party of Queensland), and Malcolm Roberts (One Nation) – and call for an end to medical censorship and vaccine mandates. (Victoria and Queensland require healthcare workers to be up to date with their COVID vaccinations.)
Dr Neil points to the report published last August by Dr Phillip M. Altman, a clinical trial and pharmaceutical regulatory affairs consultant. The report – endorsed by Professor Wendy Hoy, Director of the Centre for Chronic Disease, University of Queensland – argues that COVID-19 vaccines are not really vaccines, but experimental gene-based therapies, and have been associated worldwide “with far more deaths, illnesses, injuries, and disabilities than any other therapeutic agent in the history of medicine”.
According to Dr Altman, the vaccines use technology never deployed in a fully approved therapeutic product, and only investigated in relatively early clinical research for certain cancers and rare genetic disorders. They were only provisionally approved, not fully approved, by the Australian drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). They do not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection or transmission of the virus, and any immunological protection wanes rapidly. Side-effects of the vaccine include heart attack and strokes; cancer; infertility and miscarriages; and myocarditis, pericarditis, and death in children. Dr Altman believes that, “in light of the known unprecedented level of serious adverse reactions and death attributed to their use”, the use of vaccines must be reconsidered.
The AMPS agrees.
“We believe this debate has to be had urgently,” Dr Neil said. “If Dr Altman’s suspicions are correct, recommendations for further dosing could be detrimental to the community.”
TGA rejects Altman report
The TGA, however, rejected Dr Altman’s report, stating that it contained “many remarkable scientific errors of fact and significant misinterpretations” about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines; it was self-published without peer review, so was not credible and had not been through the scrutiny required for publication in a reputable scientific journal.
“The mRNA vaccine platform is not gene therapy,” the TGA said. “It is remarkable that people who have worked in universities are not aware of this basic fact. mRNA vaccines have also been subject to research for decades. It was first tested in the 1990s, including in the contexts of Zika, rabies, and influenza vaccines, not just certain cancers and rare genetic disorders as alleged in the report.”
The TGA dismissed claims there were more reported injuries from the COVID-19 vaccines than for all other medicines and vaccines as false and unscientific.
“There is no credible evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines cause heart attacks, strokes, cancer, infertility, or miscarriages,” the TGA said. “These conditions have not been linked to COVID-19 vaccination in Australia or internationally from data from the billions given internationally.” Deaths in children linked to COVID-19 vaccines was misinformation.
Dr Neil: Unprecedented adverse events from vaccines
According to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), more than 6.8 million people around the world had died from COVID-19 as of 10 February. In Australia, 18,828 people had died, and 11.3 million people were infected.
But in Dr Neil’s view, Australia is experiencing a highly significant iatrogenic event – that is, medical examination or treatment (specifically the vaccines) that causes illness.
Serious illness and death attributed to COVID, Dr Neil argues, are heavily weighted to the elderly and those with known comorbidities, while younger Australians are relatively resistant to the virus. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded that 13,641 people died with or from COVID-19 by 30 November 2022; COVID-19 was the underlying cause in 81.2 per cent (11,077); the median age for those who died from COVID-19 was 85.4 years, and 80.1 per cent had pre-existing chronic conditions.