A Father's emotional "anti-vax" Facebook post labeled a hoax
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A Sydney father’s declaration that his “beautiful” seven-year-old son died in the back of an ambulance of a “massive heart attack” days after receiving his Covid-19 vaccine has been labelled a hoax by authorities.
In a long Facebook comment, that swiftly drummed up thousands of likes, comments and shares, “Steve Leary” claimed he lost his son “Lachlan” last Wednesday “to the vaccine”.
“He had been unwell on Wednesday night with a fever and we monitored him closely, 6 am the next morning he started having breathing difficulties so we took him to Westmead Hospital. They tried to stop us from going in with him but it did not work,” the comment, which, along with the profile was taken down.
“4 hours passed after many tests. He was sent home 5 hours later. Friday morning at 4 am we heard him yell out, he was on his bedroom floor, he then collapsed, he was not breathing, my wife and I began CPR, I called the ambo on loud speaker.
“Ambo arrived within 7 mins, my son passed away in the ambulance. He had a massive heart attack … The government has ruined my family, they have taken away our only son, we put our trust in the government to keep us safe and they killed my boy!!!!”
Officials believe that Leary’s comment was nothing more than a renewed attempt from anti-vaxxers to discourage parents from booking their children in for the jab.
There is no record of a Lachlan Leary who died in Sydney last week — or at all. According to NSW health, “it has not been able to locate any record of any such incident”.
“There are many inaccurate posts currently circulating on social media,” The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where Leary claims “Lachlan” was taken, wrote on Facebook, refuting the claims.
“There is no record of any child having passed away following Covid vaccination at our hospital.”
Leary’s claim comes just a week after five- to 11-year-olds became eligible to receive the Covid-19 jab.
In a statement to 7 News, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) — which records all adverse events associated with the Covid-19 vaccines — also dismissed Leary’s claim.
The TGA said it “has not received any adverse event reports involving the death of any children aged between 5 and 11 years”.