{"id":1663,"date":"2021-11-26T21:16:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T20:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/26\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennicks-facebook-reposts-on-covid-vaccines-could-be-dangerous-health-expert-says-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2021-11-26T21:16:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T20:16:01","slug":"liberal-mp-gerard-rennicks-facebook-reposts-on-covid-vaccines-could-be-dangerous-health-expert-says-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/26\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennicks-facebook-reposts-on-covid-vaccines-could-be-dangerous-health-expert-says-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal MP Gerard Rennick\u2019s Facebook reposts on Covid vaccines could be dangerous, health expert says &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Senator\u2019s posts of unverified claims by third parties about the effects of Covid vaccines could \u2018potentially impact public confidence\u2019, head of AusVaxSafety program says<br \/>Last modified on Tue 23 Nov 2021 20.17 GMT<br \/>Senator Gerard Rennick\u2019s use of Facebook to push unverified stories about vaccine side-effects is potentially dangerous, a top health expert has warned, as fresh doubt is cast on the legitimacy of a story he helped promote. <br \/>Rennick, an LNP senator, has vastly increased his Facebook following in recent months after posting a deluge of stories about the Covid-19 vaccine, which he concedes he does not know are true.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2021\/nov\/23\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennick-floods-facebook-with-vaccine-posts-he-admits-may-not-be-100-accurate\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Guardian Australia revealed<\/a> that in one now deleted post, he boosted a letter falsely linking vaccines with still births from a \u201cretired GP\u201d as a credible source of information, despite her calling for the execution of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern over her government\u2019s vaccination program four weeks earlier. Rennick said he was unaware of the woman\u2019s comments about Ardern, and conceded he \u201cshould have\u201d checked the source of the letter before sharing it.<br \/>Rennick also conceded to Guardian Australia that he does not verify the accuracy of the dozens of third-party claims he has published about severe vaccine side-effects before publishing them, despite the posts being shared thousands of times among vaccine-hesitant groups online.<br \/>In one example earlier this month, Rennick published an account from a woman which claimed she had developed severe neurological side-effects \u201ccaused\u201d by her Pfizer vaccination.<br \/>The account, which was included with a video of the woman jerking and grunting on a bed, was purportedly relayed by the woman\u2019s mother, who claimed her daughter had been in \u201cconstant pain always that\u2019s excruciating\u201d since receiving the vaccine.<br \/>She claimed her daughter had struggled to walk and \u201cwas sent home from hospital with false information on her discharge papers and meds for anxiety and schizophrenia\u201d.<br \/>Since it was posted by Rennick, the video, along with the account from the woman\u2019s mother, has been viewed more than 174,000 times, shared more than 8,000 times and has more than 11,000 \u201cinteractions\u201d.<br \/>But the post has been cast in serious doubt thanks to a \u201cclarification\u201d from an online fundraising platform.<br \/>A friend of the woman set up a fundraiser on a crowdsourcing platform. As of Tuesday it had raised $8,846 NZD.<br \/>But on Tuesday the company added its own post-script to the fundraiser stating that it had made \u201camendments\u201d to give \u201cclarification on some points\u201d.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/guardian-australia-morning-mail\/2014\/jun\/24\/-sp-guardian-australias-morning-mail-subscribe-by-email?CMP=copyembed\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning<\/a><br \/>\u201c[Her] symptoms did start after receiving the Covid vaccine however her doctors have not yet conclusively determined if all her symptoms are a reaction to the vaccine or not \u2013 it was previously stated on the page that doctors had confirmed this,\u201d the post from the company stated.<br \/>The clarification raises serious questions about the claim in the post that the woman\u2019s illness was caused by the vaccine, although there is no suggestion that the woman, her mother or the fundraisers have deliberately posted false information.<br \/>Guardian Australia attempted to contact the woman\u2019s mother but did not receive a response by deadline.<br \/>After he was made aware of the change, Rennick said he would amend the post to remove reference to the Pfizer vaccine causing her injury.<br \/>\u201cI\u2019m happy to change that,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I said in the context of the post, that was from \u2018[name removed\u2019s] mum\u2019\u2026 I\u2019m happy to change that from \u2018caused\u2019 to \u2018after\u2019.\u201d<br \/>His posts \u2013 which have variously linked vaccines to appendicitis, stutters, seizures, among other things \u2013 have frustrated health experts, who warn they are without evidence and threaten to undermine public confidence in the vaccine.<br \/>Associate professor Nick Wood, who works with the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance and runs the AusVaxSafety program, said there was a danger in Rennick\u2019s posts.<br \/>\u201cHe\u2019s obviously in a position of power, so people look up to him and he therefore has a sense of credibility,\u201d Wood said. \u201cBut the fact that he has admitted he hasn\u2019t checked them and he\u2019s just posted them on, that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<br \/>\u201cI think that is a danger because it feeds into: \u2018is there a cover-up here, we\u2019re not being told things\u2019. That can potentially impact public confidence.\u201d<br \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ausvaxsafety.org.au\/sites\/default\/files\/2021-02\/AusVax%20Safety%20-%20Active%20surveillance%20of%20COVID-19%20vaccines.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">AusVaxSafety program<\/a> conducts surveillance for vaccine injuries or side-effects in the Australian population. It has surveyed four million recipients.<br \/>There was no evidence of vaccines causing appendicitis or stutters.<br \/>\u201cIn four million people, you\u2019d think if there really was a signal for appendicitis, and that appendicitis was really happening in the days after the vaccine, we\u2019d be picking that up in our system,\u201d he said.<br \/>\u201cWe have picked up the common side-effects and we have picked up chest pains.\u201d<br \/>West Australian president of the Australian Medical Association, Mark Duncan-Smith, the said posts about vaccination side-effects should be left up to the experts.<br \/>He said it was crucial to remember that just because something happened after a vaccine, it was not necessarily caused by it.<br \/>\u201cI would say that in my position as AMA WA president, I wouldn\u2019t be doing social media posts on how to pass legislation,\u201d he said. \u201cI would be leaving that up to the experts in drafting legislation and the parliamentary process. I think equally the distribution of scientific and medical information should be left up to the experts such as the TGA and ATAGI.\u201d<br \/>Asked whether his posts were dangerous, Rennick said it was his duty as a politician to present \u201ctwo sides of the story\u201d.<br \/>\u201cThey can say it\u2019s dangerous, well OK I don\u2019t dispute that there is a risk of that, but I\u2019ve also got a responsibility as a politician to put two sides of the story as well,\u201d he said. \u201cThe government\u2019s saying \u2018get the vaccine, get the vaccine, get the vaccine\u2019. OK, fair enough, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s wrong to put the other side of the story out there as well.\u201d<br \/>Rennick said he accepted that not everything that happened after a vaccine was caused by it.<br \/>But he said he was operating on \u201cthe balance of probabilities\u201d, unlike the medical indemnity scheme.<br \/>\u201cMedical doctors are saying you\u2019ve got to conclusively prove that it was the vaccine, where I\u2019m saying it should be the balance of probabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2021\/nov\/24\/liberal-mp-gerard-rennicks-facebook-reposts-on-covid-vaccines-could-be-dangerous-health-expert-says\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator\u2019s posts of unverified claims by third parties about the effects of Covid vaccines could \u2018potentially impact public confidence\u2019, head of AusVaxSafety program saysLast modified on Tue 23 Nov 2021 20.17 GMTSenator Gerard Rennick\u2019s use of Facebook to push unverified stories about vaccine side-effects is potentially dangerous, a top health expert has warned, as fresh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}