‘My life is effectively destroyed’: Allison Inquiry exposes twin faces of fight against COVID vaccine policies

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By contrast, Leidl, a former World Health Organization employee, is still not anti-vax. 

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A visual artist, writer and international development professional, she was in good health when she got her COVID shots, a non-smoker, light drinker and physically fit.  

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But in the days following her second shot, everything changed. Her symptoms include central nervous system pain, migraines, bi-lateral tendinopathy, arteriosclerosis, light sensitivity, tinnitus, chronic gastritis, and a heart rhythm problem called tachycardia. She has also lost the use of one of her ears, is in pain if she tries to sit or stand in one place for too long, and worries that she has deteriorating cognitive abilities.  

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Leidl, 64, said she hasn’t been able to work much during that period — including forfeiting the job in Austria — and has been put in “social exile” by some friends who have questioned her symptoms. She’s also spent about $250,000 over the last five years trying to get well.  

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For Leidl, unlike Kwan and most of the protesters in downtown Ottawa, her fight isn’t overtly political. She says she resents being labelled a “right-wing wingnut” because she’s suffering from vaccine injuries.  

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These twin faces of the battle against the government’s pandemic policies, or at least the effects of those policies, may have their differences. But they agree that Ottawa and the provinces should take responsibility for a vaccine that was rushed into millions of arms during a crisis and, to a degree, was mandated. 

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The vaccines were widely seen at the time as a medical miracle and the key to restoring normalcy after months of lockdowns and other restrictions. Canadians were immunized at record levels and in record time.  

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But that doesn’t change the fact that thousands of vaccine recipients were hurt — some in very serious ways. 

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Governments haven’t denied that the vaccines caused health problems, but have been tepid in deciding what to do.  

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Beyond the fact that a parliamentary committee is listening to experts and victims, Ottawa has also established the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP), which provides financial support to Canadians who have suffered serious or long-term damage from a vaccine that was approved by Health Canada. The program, which began accepting applications in 2021 and is administered by the Public Health Agency of Canada, doesn’t assess blame, just whether it was likely that somebody was harmed by a vaccine.  

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Deanna McLeod, a medical researcher and founder of Toronto-based Kaleidoscope Strategies Inc., told this week’s inquiry that doctors’ rules changed during the pandemic so that patients’ health care was guided by the collective good, not that of the individual needs.  

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“Public health became the (companies’) marketing arm.”  

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The inquiry, scheduled to hear from its final witnesses on Friday, is largely in listening mode. It has no mandate to issue findings or rule on whether certain vaccines caused harm, but could refer questions to Parliament.  

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National Post 

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