10 MAY 2024

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Anti-vaxxers say AJGP article reveals the ‘ truth ’.

Heather Saxena POLITICIANS and bloggers who believe the use of COVID-19 vaccines constitutes a criminal act are claiming an article in the RACGP ’ s house journal has exposed the ‘ truth ’ that the vaccines can cause long COVID .

The 1300-word paper was published in the Australian Journal of General Practice ( AJGP ) last month with the title ‘ Long COVID : Sufferers can take heart ’.

It was mostly about how patients with long COVID were bouncing around the health system and how GPs were struggling to treat the deluge of cases .

But high-profile vaccine sceptics , including One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and YouTuber Dr John Campbell ( PhD ), homed in on one section .

“ There is concern that COVID-19 vaccination per se might contribute to long COVID , giving rise to the colloquial term ‘ long vax ( x )’,” it begins .

“ The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 exhibits pathogenic characteristics and is a possible cause of post-acute sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination .

“ COVID-19 vaccines utilise a modified , stabilised prefusion spike protein that might share similar toxic effects with its viral counterpart . “ A possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and the incidence of POTS [ postural orthopaedic tachycardia syndrome ] has been demonstrated in a cohort of 284,592 COVID-19-vaccinated individuals , though at a rate that was one-fifth of the incidence of POTS after SARS-CoV-2 infection .”

This was paraphrasing the conclusions of a Science article and a Cureus study , co-authored by

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Dr Louise Stone on the GP patients that other services do not want , cannot help or refuse to see .

EDITORIAL , PAGE 14

ANALYSIS Paul Smith SOMETHING of both symbolic and real-world importance was announced by the Medical Board of Australia last month .

It came in a media release that talked of a plan to fasttrack doctors from overseas to work as specialists as a fix for the country ’ s medical workforce crisis .

Overseas GPs are first on the list , followed by anaesthetists , O & Gs and psychiatrists .

Dr Murphy warns of a ‘ sugar hit ’.

The significance , not spelt out explicitly , lies in the fact that these specialists will be brought in without any direct oversight of the specialist colleges : those institutions that , for good or bad , define the standards of what it is to be a specialist doctor in this country .

Until now , they have been left to perform the necessary assessments of individual specialist IMGs wanting to work here to ensure they are PAGE 3

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