by WorldTribune Staff, February 2, 2024
An Australian man who was forced to get the Covid injection to keep his job only to be injured by the shot will receive worker’s compensation benefits and medical expense reimbursement, a South Australian Employment Tribunal ruled on Jan. 15.
Daniel Shepherd, a 44-year-old father, was required to get a Covid-19 booster shot for his new job with the Department for Child Protection. At his previous job, Shepherd was required to get the shots and took two doses that made him feel unwell but did not cause debilitating symptoms.
On Feb. 25, 2022, a day after he was given the Pfizer mRNA booster, Shepherd developed severe chest pains.
The symptoms worsened until March 11, 2022, when fearing he was suffering a heart attack he was rushed to a hospital where he was diagnosed with post-vaccine pericarditis.
“It felt like someone had their knee right in my chest,” Shepherd told 9News.
Shepherd’s injury was severe enough to limit him to part-time administrative work. His symptoms persist to this day.
“Even today with just mild exertion [I get] chest pains and then it’s followed by fatigue, like severe fatigue,” he said.
During the legal proceedings, representatives of the Department for Child Protection acknowledged the injury was caused by the mRNA vaccine, but argued that because the mandate was a legal government directive, it was excluded from worker’s compensation liability under the South Australia Emergency Management Act.
But Judge Mark Calligeros, deputy president of the South Australia Employment Tribunal, disagreed. “It would be astonishing if parliament intended that an employee of the state, injured adhering to an EM (Emergency Management) Act direction, was to be precluded from receiving workers compensation.”
The judge ordered that Shepherd receive weekly income support payments and reimbursement of medical expenses. Under Australian law, that means the Department for Child Protection is liable for the costs.
Investigative journalist Rebekah Barnett, author of the Substack “Dystopian Down Under,” told The Defender the Shepherd ruling was a landmark win.
“When it comes to Covid vaccine mandate cases, the ruling rarely goes in the employee’s favor,” she said.
Sydney human rights lawyer Peter Fam told Barnett the ruling was “a good decision” and an important precedent for holding employers accountable for injuries sustained as a result of workplace Covid vaccine mandates.
Under Australian worker’s compensation law, an employer is liable only if the workplace is “a significant contributing cause of the injury” and taking the vaccine must be “sufficiently related to his work and his employment,” Fam said.
Shepherd’s case was more unambiguous than many others seeking similar redress, Dr. Rado Faletic told Barnett, because two cardiologists were willing to confirm Shepherd’s injury was caused by the vaccine.
Fam agreed, saying that compensation for less common diagnoses would be challenging “because there’s still a lot of fear with doctors and medical professionals in admitting causation.”
It’s becoming “less taboo” for Australians to discuss stories about vaccine injuries, Barnett said, citing as evidence the mainstream media’s coverage of the Shepherd story, which was also picked up by MSN Australia. Canberra Daily even ran Barnett’s Substack article.
“That said, I notice that unless people have experienced Covid vaccine injury — either themselves, or in their family or close network — they remain fairly unconcerned by it and believe injuries and deaths to be exceedingly rare,” she said.
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