David Southwell

NSW Health authorities quietly admitted that more than 20,000 western Sydney high school students who attended a mass Covid vaccination hub in late 2021 so they could sit the HSC were not provided adequate information about the potential risks “to allow informed consent to occur”. The apology and admission, however, was not communicated to the public, but rather in a private response to a father who had opposed his two teenage daughters getting the vaccine. Then-Health Minister Brad Hazzard, speaking to reporters on August 8, urged young people to “go for gold”. “You have your HSC coming up in October, and in order to be able to do that safely, for you to be able to go and sit your exams, you have been given a golden opportunity to attend the Qudos Bank Arena next week,” Mr Hazzard said. “We’ve seen our Olympic stars go for gold, we’ve seen the most amazing stars in the Qudos Bank Arena - Lana Del Rey, Keith Urban, Pink, Madonna. “You have the chance to go to that stadium next week and actually land some gold by getting your first vaccination, your first Pfizer vaccination. “NSW Health and Education are doing everything to back you in and make sure that you can go safely to your HSC exams, but what we really need you to do is go for gold next week.” The Australian Immunisation Handbook now states that the Covid vaccine is “not routinely recommended for infants, children and adolescents” aged six months to 18 years. “The benefits of vaccination may not outweigh the risk of potentially extremely rare but serious adverse events such as myocarditis/pericarditis.”