A high-profile Australian academic made disturbing claims about the Covid vaccine shortly before she died after a long battle with illness.
Professor Gemma Carey, once the director of the Centre for Social Impact at the University of New South Wales, died on November 17.
Just two months earlier, she alleged in one of her final messages on X that the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine had nearly killed her and taken years off her life.
‘For 3+ years now I have been professionally and personally expected to defend a medical intervention that nearly cost me my life, and caused suffering beyond what I thought the human body was capable of enduring or experiencing,’ Prof Carey wrote.
‘I have personally read 1000 case reports of people injured or killed, and 40 released under FOI from the TGA that included child deaths from heart attacks,’ she continued.
‘I believe we are past a point we should be using these vaccines. They do not prevent infection, the harms are significant and we have no concrete reliable data on the frequency of those harms.
‘If we don’t stop now, we will face serious regrets in the future about the damage we allowed to happen from this point onwards in the pandemic.
‘So no, you won’t see me publicly supporting the thing that stole years of my life anymore.’
Australian Professor Gemma Carey, a passionate advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, died after a battle with illness
Prof Carey made the post about the Covid vaccine just two months before she died
Prof Carey’s family have not confirmed that the Covid vaccine had anything to do with her death, telling Daily Mail Australia only that she had died ‘after a long battle with illness’.
On Tuesday, Senator Gerard Rennick, a Senator for Queensland, gave his condolences to Prof Carey’s family and claimed that she ‘suffered from a Covid vaccine injury’.
‘Gemma was a strong advocate for improving the vaccine injury scheme,’ Senator Rennick wrote.
Prof Carey suffered a serious injury from receiving the Covid vaccine in May 2021, after she took the AstraZeneca jab which was the only one recommended at the time for people with her Guillain-Barre Syndrome condition.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome is an autoimmune disease that can cause paralysis in extreme cases.
She told newsletter Crikey that the jab left her suffering ‘functional stroke’ symptoms.
Her gruelling rehab process has involved relearning how to read, write and talk while on leave from her job.
In January 2022, Prof Carey said she was desperately waiting for the protein-based vaccine Novavax to be approved to allow her to continue her course of Covid vaccines.
Prof Carey, who passed away on November 17, pictured with husband Ben O’Mara
She alleged the AstraZeneca jab had inflamed her Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
‘Every fine nerve fibre in my body became inflamed,’ Professor Carey told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘It was excruciating. I was in acute care for quite a while.’
Earlier this month, medical researcher Joshua Leisk claimed in a now-deleted post on X that a doctor had raised concerns with Prof Carey that she could be suffering from long Covid.
‘In complete despair, she reached out a few hours later for information on voluntary assisted dying,’ Mr Leisk said.
He claimed Prof Carey was ‘terrified of getting Covid’. Her family attempted to lead a Covid-free lifestyle.
Mr Leisk said that she had previously battled a severe staph infection in the gastrointestinal tract that had developed into septicemia.
‘It became an intense ordeal during this period and sleep had become challenging,’ he wrote, and she sought information about voluntary assisted dying.
Prof Carey’s last post on Instagram, dated August 25, contained a heart-wrenching cry of despair
Voluntary assisted dying, also known as euthanasia, will become legal in Canberra in 2025. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Prof Carey used voluntary assisted dying.
ACT Police confirmed the death of the Canberra-based academic is not being treated as suspicious.
She is survived by her husband Ben O’Mara and two-year-old son Gideon.
Campaigning for fairer and broader vaccine injury compensation scheme saw her targeted by trolls.
That led to her leaving the social media platform then known as Twitter and taking professional leave from her job at UNSW.
‘Due to harassment that has crossed form this platform into all aspects of my professional and personal life, I will be taking a leave of absence,’ she tweeted on September 10.
Her last post to Instagram, dated August 25, was a poetic cry of heart-wrenching despair.
‘So this is it? This is my story now?
‘The Dying Girl?
‘The Dead Girl?
‘The B**ch
‘The Survivor.
‘Don’t I ever get to be anything else?
‘Don’t I ever get to be myself again?’
For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Prof Carey was open about her struggles with Guillain-Barre Syndrome
