Did the Australian Government Apologize for Not Giving Informed Consent on COVID Vaccines?

The Real Truth About Vaccines

Why do some people think that the Australian government apologized for not giving informed consent on COVID vaccines?

The Australian government did not admit to a lack of informed consent on COVID vaccines.

The usual suspects…

Did the Australian Government Apologize for Not Giving Informed Consent on COVID Vaccines?

Surprisingly, this bit of propaganda has a grain of truth to it.

It turns out that when up to 15,390 students (not more than 20,000) were given their COVID vaccine beginning on August 9, 2021, they were reportedly not provided with the latest safety information.

Safety information on myocarditis/pericarditis that had been updated by Pfizer on July 23, 2021 and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation on July 30.

And that led to an apology to a parent who had complained from the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD), not the government of Australia, in April 2022:

“WSLHD extends their apologies to you and your daughters that their service fell short in ensuring patients are provided with sufficient information to allow informed consent to occur.”

Our decision concerning your complaint about Qudos Bank Arena NSW Health Vaccination Centre

A parent whose daughters didn’t have any side effects after their COVID vaccines.

What else?

The rare risk of myocarditis/pericarditis from COVID vaccines had been front-page news!

And by the time these students were receiving their first Pfizer doses:

• Australian national television and online news had been covering the risk for months.

• Federal regulators had formally added myocarditis to Pfizer’s safety information.

• Australia’s vaccine advisory committee had publicly discussed cases among younger recipients.

• The risk was understood to be rare, predominantly affecting males, and more frequent after second doses.

That doesn’t mean that public awareness should substitute for individual informed consent, but still, these parents were likely not uninformed.

Lastly, none of this is new.

The Western Sydney Local Health District sent their apology letter back in April 2022.

Most importantly though, even with the known risk of myocarditis/pericarditis, recommendations to get vaccinated didn’t change.

Teens were just starting to get vaccinated in Australia as we learned about the rare risk of myocarditis, but that didn’t stop them from getting vaccinated and protected, as the risk from a natural COVID infection was much higher.

And that’s likely why the great majority of teens got vaccinated, even knowing about the risk of myocarditis!

This is about the western Sydney high school students who attended a mass Covid vaccination hub in late 2021, not “every single person.” And it is about myocarditis, not unknown long term risks. Vaccine associated myocarditis, which didn’t cause any deaths or persistent symptoms in Australian teens!

Bottom line - a mistake was made, and some students did not receive an updated vaccine safety sheet, limiting their informed consent, but that pales in comparison to how anti-vaccine misinformation and propaganda negatively impacts the ability of people to make informed decisions about vaccines every single day.