COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

SENATE

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

These hearings have been the subject of worldwide news and and so we bring you these edited highlights. For those who have followed it, they mark an historic turning point in the debate.

This is the questioning from Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick.

There were two representatives from Pfizer.

HEWITT, Dr Brian, Head of Regulatory Sciences, Pfizer Australia [by video link]
THIRU, Dr Krishan, Country Medical Director, Pfizer Australia [by video link]

Senator HANSON: Thank you, gentlemen, for coming here. A recent peer reviewed paper in the
establishment scientific journal Vaccine examined Pfizer’s COVID vaccine randomised phase 3 clinical trial data.

It used the World Health Organization framework made for this purpose. It is the Brighton Collaboration on adverse events of special interest. The authors are world leading virologist and pharmacology experts from the UCLA, Stanford, University of Baltimore and Queensland’s Bond University. The paper concluded that Pfizer’s vaccine was associated with a 36 per cent increase in serious adverse events. The most common were coagulation disorders, including thrombosis, and acute cardiac injury.

In every 10,000 people injected, 18 will experience a life threatening or altering medical complication. Serious adverse events from the Pfizer COVID vaccine are four times higher than any benefit from the vaccine in reduced hospitalisation. The paper said that the product should never have been approved. Would you like to respond to that, please?

Dr Thiru: Senator, again, I do not have a copy of your paper. I have not examined it. I cannot comment on it
specifically. What I can say is this. This benefit-risk ratio of vaccination in all age groups in all populations
continues to be strongly positive. Vaccination continues to be encouraged by health authorities globally, including in Australia.

The most common adverse events that are seen are local reactions—a painful arm, some redness or
swelling, some muscle aches and pains, maybe a fever or some fatigue or tiredness. We take all reports of adverse events seriously. We collect that information. We analyse that information. We communicate it to regulatory agencies such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

They’ve pooled that data from the safety data that they receive from other sources, be it from health care professionals, patients directly or state departments of health. Their conclusion is very consistent
with conclusions of other regulatory agencies around the world. That is, that the benefit-risk ratio for vaccination remains strongly positive in all indications and all age groups for which it has been approved.

Senator HANSON: Well, I want to know your response to the reported 1,476,227 adverse event reports up to
December 2022, including 32,621 deaths.

Unaware


Dr Hewitt: Senator, I’m not aware of the figures or the document from which you are reading.

Senator HANSON: In Australia. You don’t know? You haven’t read up much on all this, have you? You
knew you were going to come this inquiry, yet you haven’t done anything whatsoever to respond to our questions.

I think it’s very poor of you to not be able to answer these questions. You are a scientist. You are from science, Dr Hewitt, and you’re a country doctor, Dr Thiru. I expected to have more of an answer here because we’re going through dire straits.

People in Australia have had adverse side effects. You say that the injection site is the main cause of adverse side effects. What I’m reading here in your figures is pages and pages of adverse side effects.
You know what most of this comes up with? Nervous system disorders.

There are thousands upon thousands of people affected, be it with lethargy or headache. You’ve got other problems here with them. Another one that really concerns me is to do with reproductive system and breast disorders.

Did you state to the TGA the impact that this drug would have on pregnant women?

A Time of Universal Deceit

Dr Thiru: Senator, firstly, I reject the premise of your question in terms of those safety findings that you have communicated. It’s very important to note the difference between an adverse event that has been reported and an adverse reaction that has been actually attributed to the product.

In terms of your specific question about pregnancy, all of the information that we have has been communicated to the TGA. I draw your attention to the approved product label for the product. It says that there is limited clinical trial evidence in pregnant women and that it should be the subject of an informed decision between a woman and her physician or vaccine provider.

That animal data has not suggested any untoward effects on pregnancy, on foetal development, on childbirth and on postnatal development. I might add that expert groups have said this about vaccination in pregnancy.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has recommended that if you are pregnant, you can get vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine at any stage of pregnancy. They have also said real-world evidence has shown that the Pfizer vaccine is safe if you are pregnant and breastfeeding. If you are pregnant and unvaccinated, you have a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Your baby may also have a higher risk of premature birth.

Another group of experts, and probably the most august authority in this area, is the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. They have said that pregnant women in Australia are a priority group for COVID-19 vaccination and should be routinely offered the Pfizer vaccine
Comirnaty or Moderna Spikevax at any stage of pregnancy.

They have said there is no evidence of increased risk of miscarriage or teratogenic risk with mRNA or viral vaccines.

Contracts

Senator HANSON: You are still on trial with this drug, aren’t you? Any other drugs that are actually
introduced into our society usually go through 10 years of testing. When the pandemic was announced by the World Health Organization, you said within six days you started doing trials into it. You started the vaccination, which you said came out a year later. It was passed. What trials had you done prior to that? What trials had you performed to ensure the full safety of this drug on the people of the world?

Dr Thiru: We signed a contract. We signed an agreement with another company BioNTech to research the
vaccine. That proceeded over the year. I might ask my colleague Dr Hewitt to talk about the clinical trial program.

Dr Hewitt: Given then urgent public health need to responsibly develop a vaccine with a favourable safety
profile, we collaborated very closely with independent regulatory and health authorities around the world. That allowed us to conduct key activities in parallel to significantly accelerate vaccine development without compromising safety.

Senator HANSON: This is the last question. You’re both Australians. You live here. Were you in the
country during COVID-19?

Dr Hewitt: Yes, Senator, I was.

Dr Thiru: Yes.

Senator HANSON: Okay. Dr Thiru, you made a comment that no-one was forced to have the vaccination.
You were in Australia during COVID-19. You must have been fully aware that people—nurses, doctors—to keep their jobs were forced to have the vaccination. Do you retract your statement that they were not forced?

Dr Thiru: No. I believe firmly that nobody was forced to have a vaccine. Mandates for vaccine requirement
are determined by governments and health authorities. I believe everybody was offered an opportunity to get a vaccine or not get a vaccine. I don’t believe that anybody was forced to take a vaccine.

Senator HANSON: A lot of Australians will disagree with you on that one.

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