Draft:COVERSE

COVERSE is an Australian charity that aims to support and represent Australians who have experienced serious adverse effects from COVID-19 vaccines.. COVERSE was founded by a group of COVID-19 vaccine injured Australian professionals in mid-2022, some of whom have been vocal in Australian media about their injuries, including scientist Dr Rado Faletič, human resources manager Naomi Smith, and Jacki-Stricker-Phelps OAM, whose wife Dr Kerryn Phelps also claims to be injured by her COVID-19 vaccination.

As well as connecting injured Australians with support groups, COVERSE provides information for patients, families and doctors, and is collaborating with academics to develop better research into COVID-19 vaccine injuries and treatments. COVERSE claims to represent many thousands of vaccine injured Australians.

= Vision = COVERSE believes that by applying sound scientific principles, a compassionate approach to healthcare, ethical political discussions, and inclusive public policies, that it can meet challenges and hardships faced by those with COVID-19 vaccine injuries. COVERSE employs a multi-faceted approach, focusing its activities in the areas of science, education, community and advocacy.

= Advocacy = COVERSE founders are regularly quoted in the media on issues affecting the COVID-19 vaccine injured, especially in regard to the Australian Government’s support and compensation services.

COVERSE has made numerous submissions to the Australian Government advocating for better research into COVID-19 vaccine injuries, and better support for the injured. In a submission to the Federal Long COVID Inquiry (conducted across late 2022 – early 2023, with the Government’s final report being published on 24 April 2023), COVERSE noted the similarities between Long COVID symptoms and vaccine injuries, calling for research and support services to treat both conditions equally, and calling for complete transparency on vaccine risks as well as benefits.

In August 2023, COVERSE also made a submission to the Australian Government on its proposed Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, criticising the Government’s role in censoring vaccine critical information online (including true information and legitimate vaccine injuries ), and recommending against the Bill.

= In the media = COVERSE founders have been prominent in Australian media. In their media appearances, COVERSE founders generally stress that they are not anti-vaccines. Rather, they typically argue for more research into Covid vaccine injuries and treatments, better support services for the injured, and better regulatory processes to protect Australians.

COVERSE director and co-founder Dr Rado Faletič featured in one of the earliest national news stories of serious injury following Covid vaccination, in June 2022. Dr Faletič told News.com.au that he suffered “a huge constellation of symptoms from head to toe” after his two Pfizer shots, which he described as being similar to “mutant long Covid”.

Dr Faletic claimed that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is responsible for monitoring drug safety in Australia, was “simply uninterested” in his injury reports, and likened the treatment of Australians suffering after vaccination to that of Vietnam veterans. “We are being treated with the same type of derision and condescension as Vietnam vets when they came back damaged. The government doesn’t want to acknowledge us, people in the community look down on us. There are a lot of parallels,” he told News.com.au.

COVERSE director and co-founder Naomi Smith went public with her injury story in January 2023 in a feature article in national masthead The Australian, which was critical of the national Covid vaccine injury compensation scheme. Smith told The Australian that she had initially kept silent about her injury for fear of being “used by the anti-vax movement” to discourage people from getting vaccinated.

Smith claimed to have experienced pericarditis, numbness, extreme fatigue, cognitive decline, short-term memory loss and tinnitus after her second Pfizer vaccination. She said of the TGA and medical professionals who she went to for help, that “no one seems to know what to do with you.”

COVERSE board member and co-founder Jackie Stricker-Phelps OAM shared her Covid vaccine injury story in an expose published in the Daily Mail in January 2023, a month after her wife, former president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Kerryn Phelps, went public with her Covid vaccine injury. Stricker-Phelps claimed her “debilitating neurological and rheumatological effects since the initial Pfizer vaccines” symptoms had been life-altering. She called for “more effort and funding into research” to find out why the vaccines were causing such injuries, so that treatments could be developed.

COVERSE has developed a presence on social media, where they share stories of community members, and information and resources. They have accounts on YouTube, Instagram and X

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