Australian Man Apologises to Health Staff for Self-Injecting COVID-19 Vaccine

Clinical staff draw up AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at the Claremont Showgrounds Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic in Perth, Australia on May 3, 2021. Paul Kane/Getty Images

The Northern Territory man who self-injected a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Coolalinga, southeast of Darwin in Australia’s north, has apologised to health workers for his actions, NT News reported on Thursday.

In a statement, he explained that he was not against vaccines, but rather the vaccine mandate, and accepted that his actions may have come across as threatening.

This comes after the man, who did not wish to be named, allegedly entered the Coolalinga clinic to receive his second COVID-19 shot on Tuesday in an agitated state.

According to NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker, the man indicated that he was not happy with the process and caused a disturbance. “He pushed one of the hands away of one of our staff and grabbed the needle and injected himself with the vaccine,” Chalker said.

Chalker called the behaviour inappropriate and not something that should be tolerated. He added that the man had been issued with an infringement notice for disorderly behaviour.

However, the man later told NT News that he did not assault anyone and did not push the staff member’s hand, saying that the nursing staff took three steps back when he grabbed the needle to inject himself.

He had written “under duress” on the consent form, and staff had refused to vaccinate him unless the comment was removed from the form. He therefore grabbed the syringe and injected himself.

When he came to the clinic for his first jab, he said he had also written “under duress” on the form, but the staff had gone ahead with the inoculation that time.

“I am not in any way shape or form an anti-vaxxer,” he said. “I am fully vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, Hep A and B, and so on.”

Protesters march across Victoria Bridge during a rally against a mandatory Covid-19 vaccine in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 1, 2021. Dan Peled/Getty Images

However he stressed that people should have the right to choose, and that in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, he was coerced into it, only because his human right to travel freely in his own country had been taken away.

He had been desperate to see his son, who lives interstate, and needed to be vaccinated to do so.

“I was not willing to sign my consent without it reflecting the coercion used to make me consent, and I stand by that action,” he said.

Despite this, he conceded that his behaviour was not fair on the staff.

“Although I did not touch, assault, or threaten to assault, I can imagine how threatening I appeared when I grabbed the syringe from the table,” he said.

He apologised to Coolalinga Clinic staff for his aggressive actions and praised them for their professionalism.