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Below is my section of a comprehensive interdisciplinary submission by the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS) to the Australian excess mortality inquiry.

As discussed in a post earlier, the inquiry committee rejected our submission, though several of the authors testified at a public hearing in June.

My section focuses on social listening, as recommended by the World Health Organisation for the development of vaccination policy in public health. This is the kind of work that should be formally undertaken by social scientists to complement quantitative data collection on vaccination impacts and outcomes.

As you will see, insights from social listening suggest that the official figures on Covid vaccine injuries and deaths provide an incomplete picture of the true impact of the Covid vaccination rollout and mandates. The excess deaths inquiry should attempt to quantify the true rates of injuries and deaths attributable to vaccination, which are not reflected in official records at present.

[Read and download the AMPS full submission here.]

Australian excess deaths: Insights from social listening suggest that injuries and deaths reported to the DAEN do not provide a full picture of Covid vaccine impact

This report is prepared by Rebekah Barnett, an independent journalist with a social science background (BA in Communications, Hons). While much of the health and mortality reporting during the period 2021-2023 relies on quantitative data, this alone cannot provide a complete picture. It is essential to collect and analyse qualitative data to ‘fill the gaps’ so that the Committee can achieve a holistic view of potential factors driving excess deaths in Australia during this period.

This report addresses point (b) in the Terms of Reference, with discussion of the Covid vaccination program as a potential contributing factor to excess mortality 2021-2023, and recommendations for further inquiry. 

In an unprecedented scenario, the Australian population was mass-vaccinated within a 12-15 month window during the Covid pandemic, starting from February 2021. The Australian Government reports that by the end of April 2022, 95.5% of Australians aged 16 and over and 80.4% of those aged 12–15 had been double vaccinated. Over two-thirds (69.3%) of eligible people had received a third dose. Among children aged 5–11, 52.8% had received their first dose, and 36.9% had received 2 doses.[1]

Despite keeping detailed records on vaccination rates and coverage, the Australian Government has produced no reports measuring the impact of this mass medical intervention on the health of Australians, as it pertains to either benefits or harms, including “non-specific effects.”[2]

A study of the DTP vaccine in Guinea-Bissau, for example, found that it protected against the diseases of diptheria, tentanus and pertussis, but at the same time was associated with a five-fold increase in child mortality compared to children who did not receive the vaccine, when controlling for background factors.[3]

Notably, data on all-cause mortality by vaccination status have not been made publicly available.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) monitors safety concerns arising from the Covid vaccination program. As at 16 April 2024, the TGA’s safety surveillance database, the DAEN, had received 140,263 reports of injury and 1,021 reports of death in relation to Covid vaccine projects.[4]

It is well established that passive surveillance systems, such as the DAEN, and combination passive/active surveillance systems, such as those run by Australia’s States and Territories, only reflect a portion of total injuries and deaths experienced within a population. This is called the Under Reporting Factor (URF).

Estimates within the scientific literature indicate that the URF for vaccine-related adverse event reporting may be between 10-100 fold, meaning that as few as 1% of adverse events experienced following vaccination may be reported to databases like VAERS and the DAEN.[5]

The URF of Covid vaccine-related injuries and deaths in Australia is unknown. In a Freedom of Information Act response, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) acknowledged that the true rate of Covid vaccine injuries and deaths is unknown, but was not able to provide an estimate of the URF.[6]

The TGA has not attempted to determine how many of the Covid vaccine-related injuries reported to the DAEN are causally linked to the Covid vaccines, instead assigning ‘possible’ causality to all injury reports. The TGA conducts no routine follow-up on injury reports, so it is unknown how many reported injuries resulted in death since the initial injury report was made.[7]

The TGA does not conduct active surveillance of subclinical injury, which, if unidentified and untreated, can cause sudden early death. A peer-reviewed study of mRNA booster effects found that 1/35 subjects sustained myocardial damage, yet most instances of damage were subclinical, and would therefore have remained unidentified and untreated in the absence of active surveillance.[8]

The TGA acknowledges only 14 deaths as causally linked to the Covid vaccines, however the TGA has no protocol in place for autopsies to be carried out in cases of death temporally associated with Covid vaccination. Where autopsies have been used to determine cause of death following Covid vaccination, there is evidence that the vaccination is a sole or contributing cause in 73.9% of cases.[9]

Therefore, Australia’s published data on Covid vaccine harms are insufficient to estimate the impact of the mass vaccination program on Australian health and excess deaths.

Social Listening

Due to the incomplete nature of official data on COVID-19 vaccine harms, supplementation from other sources is required. Qualitative data generated by social listening can provide a thick description of the community experience of harms arising from the vaccination program.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledges the importance of social listening in public health in a report titled, ‘Finding the Signal through the Noise: A landscape and framework to enhance the effective use of digital social listening for immunisation demand generation’.[10]

Social listening is the practice of monitoring community sentiment through a combination of tools including conducting interviews, monitoring social media discourses, and other desk research.

The WHO, in partnership with vaccine alliance Gavi, says that social listening is an important tool for informing actionable insights related to vaccine policy.

In Australia, insights gleaned from social listening indicate that the scope of Covid vaccine injuries and deaths reflected in the national safety surveillance database, the DAEN, may just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the real damage perceived within the community. Following, I discuss social listening findings from three social media case studies, followed by my experience as an interviewer for Covid vaccine injury testimonies project, Jab Injuries Australia.

Case Studies

Three social media case studies demonstrate a disconnect between official messaging and reporting on Covid vaccine harm, and community sentiment.

First, an article published by the Herald Sun on 8 April 2024 titled ‘Rise in compo claims from people including Victorian workers who had mandatory jabs for work.’[11]

In the comments section, readers have listed personal testimonies of injuries and deaths occurring with temporal nearness to vaccination, of which multiple commentors said they had not reported, and/or had not sought compensation. Similar comments were found under the Herald Sun’s Facebook and Instagram posts about the article.[12]  A selection of screenshotted comments can be viewed here.[13]

Contrary to official assurances that the injuries and deaths reported in the DAEN are reflective of the totality of suspected injuries and deaths sustained in relation to the Covid vaccination program, the comments under the Herald Sun article indicate that not all Australians have reported injuries and deaths that they believe to be linked to Covid vaccination.

While official sources state that most Covid vaccination side effects are mild and resolve quickly, multiple commenters discussed life-changing injuries rendering themselves or their loved ones unable to walk, work or participate in society. Some are actively looking to access euthanasia due to their suffering.

Second, a social media call-out by Nine News posted to Facebook on either 10 or 11 January 2023 (precise date unknown as the original post has since been deleted) requesting that users who had experienced a heart attack contact the network. A screenshot of the post is included below.

Comments under the post feature testimonies of people having suffered cardiac injury after Covid vaccination. A selection of screen-shotted comments can be viewed here.[14]

Within 24 hours, Nine News had deleted the post along with all the comments.[15] However, a subsequent post promoting a new vaccine, posted to Facebook on 11 January 2023, garnered over 500 comments, many expressing anger, from users wanting to know why the previous heart attack post had been deleted, and offering more stories of cardiac injuries from Covid vaccination. The post and the comments under it are available here.[16]

Commenters discussed not being able to get exemptions from future shots despite severe injury, having to see multiple doctors to get a diagnosis, and high saturation of apparent injuries within their social networks. Life-altering side effects were discussed. Some reported strokes and deaths of loved ones in close temporal proximity to Covid vaccination, where deaths were attributed to something else.

Significantly, a high proportion of comments expressed frustration at Nine News having deleted the heart attack-related post, indicating that this issue is important to the community. Many comments also expressed doubts about the safety profile of the Covid vaccines.

Third, an ABC news article titled ‘Did your period change after getting your COVID-19 vaccine? A new study suggests you weren’t imagining it’ posted to the ABC’s Instagram page in October 2022.[17]

The post garnered hundreds of comments within 24 hours, with women detailing their menstrual disorders after Covid vaccination, and expressing anger and frustration at having been gaslit when they reported their symptoms to medical professionals or on social media. A sample of screenshotted comments can be viewed here.

Some commenters noted that the ABC specifically had participated in this gaslighting of women over their health, as evidenced by a previous ‘fact check’ denying the link between Covid vaccines and menstrual disorders.[18] The ABC responded by deleting all the comments and closing the comments section to prevent further comments from being added.

The reaction to this post on social media indicates that a high level of frustration and distress was felt within the community over menstrual disorders following vaccination being dismissed and not being taken seriously by medical professionals.

Interviews

In my own experience interviewing scores of Australians who suffered severe injuries in temporal relation to Covid vaccination as an interviewer for the testimonies project Jab Injuries Australia, I observed that most of my interviewees were dismissed multiple times by doctors before being taken seriously and finally receiving a diagnosis and proper treatment.

Interviewees reported that obtaining a proper diagnosis can take many months or years, at great expense, and some abandoned this process because they could not afford the mounting costs. Most (if not all) interviewees reported that, aside from a routine administrative call to confirm personal details upon lodging their injury report, the TGA never followed up on their case.

As many users find the DAEN difficult to navigate, some injury reports remain out of date without eventual diagnoses being updated. In some cases, neither the injured party nor their health professional made a report to the DAEN or the State or Territory vaccine safety surveillance system.

It was common for people presenting with shortness of breath to report that they were prescribed anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication on numerous occasions before finally being given the appropriate tests to diagnose myocarditis, pericarditis, or other cardiac injuries arising from their Covid vaccinations.

Several parents of young people who died of mystery, sudden onset conditions soon after Covid vaccination reported that medical staff refused to note Covid vaccination as a potential contributing factor. In one case, a parent said that a coroner had verbally advised that they were not prepared to mention Covid vaccination in attributing the cause of death on the deceased’s official record, despite there being no other plausible medical explanation for the young person’s death.

Interviewees often noted the stark contrast between the exceedingly high bar for attributing an injury or death to Covid vaccination, compared to the willingness of coroners and the medical profession to attribute an injury or death to Covid if a causal chain can be identified in temporal proximity to an infection.

Covid vaccine-injured Australians reported that they are unable to access effective treatment for their presenting conditions, as medical professionals don’t understand their injuries or how to treat them, and there is a dearth of research for the injured and their doctors to refer to.

A selection of Jab Injuries Australia interview subjects who I have personally interviewed, and who faced difficulties in attaining appropriate testing, diagnosis and treatment include:

• Duncan and Emma
• Grace
• Julita
• Karri
• Katie
• Melanie
• Pete
• Scott
• Talida

Many more testimonies can be viewed on the Jab Injuries Australia website.

Insights

Through social listening on social media and in interviews, the following insights can be gleaned:

1.    Australians feel that they have been dismissed and censored by the medical profession and the media when reporting their negative health outcomes following Covid vaccination.

2.    Not all injured Australians or families of those deceased in temporal relation to Covid vaccination have reported these injuries and deaths to the passive safety surveillance systems. The true number of injured Australians is unknown.

3.    The barriers to obtaining a Covid vaccine injury are high, with numerous Australians being misdiagnosed with psychiatric conditions before being given proper tests for physical injuries.

4.    Medical professionals and coroners display an extreme reluctance to draw links to Covid vaccination where injuries and deaths have occurred with no other reasonable explanation.

5.    Some injured Australians have suffered without proper because they don’t know that they can report their injuries and claim compensation to get adequate support.

In relation to excess deaths, the above insights suggest that it is plausible that:

a)    Some of the unexplained excess deaths may be due to Covid vaccination, whether reported to the DAEN or not.

b)    Some of the unexplained excess deaths may be downstream of undiagnosed and untreated injuries arising from Covid vaccination.

Social listening in other countries

Surveys of the US population indicate that roughly half of the population believes they know someone who was injured by their Covid vaccination, and a quarter believe they know someone who was killed by their Covid vaccination. [19]

Conclusion and recommendations

It is essential that Australia’s excess death inquiry take into account that the injuries and deaths reflected in the DAEN in relation to the Covid vaccines do not reflect the totality of deaths and injuries arising from the mass vaccination of the Australian population during 2021-2022.

The inquiry should reference other, supplementary forms of data in its attempt to answer the following questions:

1.    What is the under-reporting factor of Covid vaccine injuries and deaths in Australia?

2.    What is the total estimated impact of unreported injuries and deaths in temporal relation to Covid vaccination on Australia’s excess death rate?

3.    What impact has misdiagnosed Covid vaccine injuries resulting in lack of appropriate care for life-threatening conditions had on Australia’s excess deaths?

4.    How many people who reported injuries to the DAEN in relation to Covid vaccines have since died, and how many of the deaths were related, either directly, or by causal chain, to the reported injury?

Yours Sincerely,

Rebekah Barnett

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[1] “The COVID-19 vaccination program“, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2 July 2024.

[2] “Association of BCG, DTP, and measles containing vaccines with childhood mortality: systematic review“, British Medical Journal, 13 October 2016.

[3] Søren Wengel Mogensen, Andreas Andersen, Amabelia Rodrigues, Christine S. Benn and Peter Aaby, “The Introduction of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis and Oral Polio Vaccine Among Young Infants in an Urban African Community: A Natural Experiment“, National Library of Medicine, 2017.

[4] Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) – medicines, Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

[5] “Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP:VAERS)“;
“Critical Appraisal of VAERS Pharmacovigilance: Is the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) a Functioning Pharmacovigilance System?“, Science, Public Health Policy, and the Law, October 2021; “Under-Reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions: A Systematic Review“, Drug Safety, 20 November 2012.

[6] “Freedom of Information request on the MHRA figure for the estimated under-reporting factor (URF) for reports of vaccine adverse reactions made to the Yellow Card Scheme, specifically for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines – all brands( FOI 22/032)“, UK MHRA, 31 May 2022.

[7] “Australia’s drug regulator admits it doesn’t know extent of Covid vaccine harm“, Dystopian Down Under, 7 September 2023.

[8] “Sex-specific differences in myocardial injury incidence after COVID-19 mRNA-1273 booster vaccination“, European Journal of Heart Failure, 20 July 2023.

[9] “A Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings in Deaths After COVID-19 Vaccination“, Zenodo, 6 July 2023.

[10] “Finding the Signal through the Noise: A landscape review and framework to enhance the effective use of digital social listening for immunisation demand generation“, Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance, June 2021.

[11] Alex White, “Rise in compo claims from people including Victorian workers who had mandatory jabs for work“, The Herald Sun, 8 April 2024.

[12] “Millions paid out in Covid jab compo claims“, The Herald Sun, 8 April 2024.

[13] “Millions paid out for mandated Covid vax injuries just the tip of the iceberg?“, Dystopian Down Under, 9 April 2024.

[14] “Nine News asked for people to come forward if they’ve suffered a heart attack, and let’s just say things did not go as planned“, Dystopian Down Under, 12 January 2023.

[15] Nine News Facebook page.

[16] “Trial for vaccine targeting three different infections“, Nine News Sydney, 12 January 2023.

[17] Dannielle Maguire, “Did your period change after getting your COVID-19 vaccine? A new study suggests you weren’t imagining it“, ABC News, 1 October 2022.

[18] “Menstruation and coronavirus: doctors dismiss claims vaccinated strangers can affect women’s periods“, ABC Fact Check, 30 April 2021.

[19] “More Than Half Suspect COVID-19 Vaccines Have Caused Deaths“, Rasmussen Reports, 12 January 2024; Mark Skidmore, “The role of social circle COVID-19 illness and vaccination experiences in COVID-19 vaccination decisions: a representative online survey of the United States population“, ResearchGate, June 2023.

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Republished with thanks to Dystopian Down Under. Image courtesy of Adobe.