Gov't Slammed with 500-Applicant Class-Action Lawsuit Over COVID Vaccine Injuries
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Australian government over allegations that it ignored severe side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court against the Commonwealth government, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and a number of government officials, according to news.com.au.
It was organized by Dr. Melissa McCann, a general practitioner from Queensland, who has raised over $100,000 for the suit through crowdfunding.
Almost 500 people have reportedly applied to join the lawsuit, citing personal injury, health care expenses and other losses allegedly caused by adverse effects of the COVID vaccine.
The suit argues that the government’s push to “advance the acceptance and use of the various approved Covid-19 vaccines constitutes negligence and/or misfeasance.”
One of the lead members of the lawsuit, Gareth O’Gradie, 41, developed severe pericarditis after his vaccination in July 2021.
“Six days after [the vaccination] I had sudden-onset chest pain, shortness of breath, fever, chills, sweats,” O’Gradie told the outlet. “I’d never known what a heart attack would feel like, but that’s the type of thing I expected.”
His condition was reportedly deemed vaccine-induced.
For the next 90 days, he was in and out of the hospital and unable to work. Despite going through various treatments, his pericarditis returned.
“It came back quite badly in February 2022 and I was in hospital for 35 days — that’s when the surgery took place,” O’Gradie said. “In the end I had open heart surgery to remove the pericardium, which had become inflamed and stuck to my heart. It’s extreme.”
O’Gradie said he is now left without the pericardial sac, which regulates the amount of blood that flows to the heart, resulting in permanent disabilities such as “severe shortness of breath and fatigue.”
While O’Gradie expressed a belief that the government engaged in a “cover-up” to hide side effects of the vaccine, he noted that he is “totally not or never have been anti-vaccine.”
Another lead member of the lawsuit, Anthony Rose, 46, has reportedly suffered from severe cognitive impairment and chronic fatigue ever since his vaccination.
In the 24 hours after receiving the COVID vaccine in October 2021, he began feeling “severe stabbing chest pains.” That progressed to “serious neurological issues” in the following weeks, according to news.com.au. The exact cause of his symptoms has reportedly eluded doctors.
Despite once being a construction management worker and amateur MMA fighter, Rose said his body can now only handle three to four hours of light activity before his brain “just shuts down.”
“I’ve only got a limited amount of function then it just completely shuts down with seizure-like activity — tics, tremors, my legs go, speech goes, vision goes,” he said. “I’ve done everything — all sorts of red light therapies, hyperbaric chambers, functional neurologists where they had me on all sorts of machines — I’ve exhausted every medical avenue.”
“I’m just treading water waiting to drown, basically,” Rose said.
He went on to lament his inability to take care of his family, noting that he’ll be “basically homeless” if and when the cost of rent goes up.
No number has yet been given specifying how much compensation is being sought by the lawsuit.
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