Broadbent to campaign unvaccinated

RUSSELL Broadbent, the veteran Member for Monash, will face the electors in May this year completely unvaccinated.

How this will impact his 13th campaign for election, since first contesting the Division of Streeton unsuccessfully in 1984, is anyone’s guess. But it will almost certainly stop him attending places and events in the run up to election day.

Even if it’s a perceived risk, you can’t turn up and kiss babies or shake hands.

Mr Broadbent, who is one of only a handful of Federal MPs who have refused the jab, confirmed to the Sentinel-Times this week that he would not be getting vaccinated, as earlier indicated, with the newly arrived Novavax vaccine.

“It’s not for a (personal) medical issue,” Mr Broadbent said, although he has acknowledged taking doctor’s advice on the available vaccines.

“I want to be confident about what I’m getting. If I get sick, I’m no good to anyone,” he said.

Mr Broadbent said he had previously received, under doctor’s advice, an influenza shot, which uses the same technology as the protein-based Novavax vaccine but because it had only received provisional approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), he wouldn’t be getting it.

Mr Broadbent reportedly told Parliament yesterday that when he contracted Coronavirus some months ago he took Ivermectin as a treatment. The drug has not been authorized or approved for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.

Infectious diseases expert Diana Florescu MD, who led the phase 3 clinical trial of the Novavax vaccine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) said that like other COVID-19 vaccines, Novavax does not cause COVID-19 infection.

“It can’t get you sick. This vaccine doesn’t contain either live or inactivated virus.”

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine contains a protein (made using moth cells) plus an adjuvant (made from tree bark). An adjuvant is an ingredient added to boost a person’s immune response, creating higher levels of antibodies.

The Novavax vaccine uses a tell-tale piece of the coronavirus: the notorious spike protein. All alone, the spike protein is harmless and can’t cause COVID-19.

When your immune system encounters the lonely spike protein, it produces antibodies against it. This gives you protection against future COVID-19 infection.

“Unlike mRNA vaccines, the spike protein is already premade in the Novavax vaccine. It’s a shortcut,” explains Dr. Florescu.

“All the synthesis happens outside the body, and we just give the end product: the spike protein.”

But Mr Broadbent isn’t accepting the available science, he’s making his own decision. Whether that will affect the decision of voters, 93 per cent of whom have either willingly received the jabs on government advice, or felt compelled to do so, is yet to be seen.

Mr Broadbent won the 2019 election with a personal vote of 46.28% and a two-party preferred vote of 57.36%

The Novavax vaccine will be available to be administered from the week of February 21, 2022 and two doses can be received three weeks apart.