CANBERRA, Australia (LifeSiteNews) — An Australian senator engaged in an explosive faceoff on SkyNews yesterday, courageously speaking out in defense of people suffering from adverse effects from the COVID jab as the SkyNews host dismissed them and a fellow senator ridiculed them.
The confrontation took place during a Newsday broadcast during which Gerard Rennick, Liberal Senator for Queensland, discussed cases of adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccines. Rennick was often interrupted by SkyNews host Tom Connell and by Labour Senator Murray Watt. Both dismissed the cases, describing them as “anecdotal,” and Watt later called the people involved “anti-vaccination nuts.”
In answer to a question from Connell, Rennick began by expressing his concerns about the growing number of young people who have suffered adverse effects from the vaccine across Australia. He was immediately interrupted by Connell, who attempted to hijack the discussion.
Rennick carried on nonetheless and denounced cases of people who were forced to take a second dose of the COVID vaccine after having developed adverse effects from their first shots.
“In the last week, I’ve had a 37-year-old woman who’s had a stroke, who’s been told she’s got to take a second vaccine or she is going to lose her job,” Rennick said.
“I’ve also spoken with a 31-year-old-man who’s been paralyzed since early September down his right-hand side … the only time he’s heard from Queensland Health was to be told that he’s got to take a second shot,” he continued.
Rennick said he was outraged by this practice and denounced the government for not providing people who have been unable to work because of adverse effects with income support.
“It’s bad enough that people don’t get a choice to get the vaccine, but it’s worse that they’re being forced to take a second vaccine after they’ve had an adverse event, and that the government hasn’t yet provided them income support while they’ve been unable to work,” he said.
Rennick had already made a similar comment in a Facebook post about a 37-year-old woman who suffered a stroke after taking the shot.
Connell noted in his Facebook post that Rennick commented: “Rare side effect? Not from what I’m hearing.”
Connell argued that this comment was misleading and said the case was “anecdotal evidence.” He referred to the weekly reports by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which he said shows no evidence that side effects from the COVID vaccines aren’t rare. He pointed to the official figures provided by TGA, which currently report only nine deaths and 156 cases of TTS (thrombosis).
Rennick noted that the nine deaths were only the ones that were confirmed to have been caused by the vaccine out of 589 that occurred.
“By the benchmark of other vaccines, that is not ‘rare,’” he said.
“These COVID vaccines have had more reported deaths than all the other vaccines put together in the last 30 years. I think that it’s worth looking at,” he added.
Rennick also explained that he did not base his Facebook comment from a single case but from about 50 people that had contacted him in regard to adverse events.
Connell maintained that the cases presented by Rennick were anecdotal evidence.
“I accept this is anecdotal evidence,” Rennick replied, “but you can go on the World Health Organization database, there’s been over 10,000 reported deaths there from the COVID vaccines; compare that to other [vaccines] like tetanus or polio, which have had something like 20 reported deaths.”
“There’s been a lot more adverse events, and a lot more reported deaths from these vaccines than any other vaccine in prior time. This should not be ignored, Tom,” Rennick said.
He then argued that by comparison no one between the ages of 5 and 11 died from COVID in Australia.
“So why are we even talking about giving vaccines to younger people when the relative risk ratio [of them dying from COVID] is very, very, low?” he asked.
The debate became heated when Watt accused Rennick of spreading “misinformation” and “anti-vaccination nonsense” on his Facebook page.
Watt even described the people featured on Rennick’s page, many of whom have suffered from severe adverse events, as “anti-vaccination nuts.”
“These people got vaccinated, Murray!” Rennick said in response, “don’t you dare call them anti-vaxxers … ”
Rennick also explained that the reason people who have suffered from these events contact him is because the mainstream media are not interested in getting their story out.
“I have spoken to two journalists last week over these adverse events and the media organizations have told them not to talk about adverse events,” he said.
When Watt argued that all this “is just a conspiracy theory,” Rennick admonished him.
“You’re ridiculing a serious issue here, Murray.”
He then argued that people who have suffered from serious injuries deserve his respect.
“Don’t ridicule them,” he said.
The Labour Senator for Queensland made no apologies.