Anti-vaxxer influencer Mitch Orval has claimed vindication after a Covid jab was withdrawn globally due to its potential side effects.
On Tuesday, AstraZeneca announced it was removing its Covid vaccine worldwide, a week after the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant conceded the vaccine can cause fatal blood clots and low platelet counts.
Gold Coast-based Mitch, 27, who openly flouted Covid mandates including masks and vaccines during the pandemic, was quick to gloat over the news via Instagram on Wednesday.
‘I received written death threats to my house for not taking this,’ he wrote next to a stock photo of AstraZeneca vaccine bottles.
‘I lost all of my brand deals, I am still blacklisted from working with companies, I was scruitinised online, had people taking photos of me at cafes and restaurants to send to authorities for “breaking the law”,’ he continued.
Anti-vaxxer influencer Mitch Orval, 27, (pictured) claimed vindication on Wednesday after the AstraZeneca Covid jab was withdrawn globally due to its potential side effects
‘I received written death threats to my house for not taking this,’ he wrote next to a stock photo of AstraZeneca vaccine bottles
Mitch said his experience taught him to ‘listen to his intuition’ when you ‘believe in something’, regardless of what others say.
‘If you survived the social pressure of not taking this bulls**t, congratulations. I admire you!’ he added.
Mitch proceeded to share a message to his haters while sharing a photo of himself flipping the birdie while wearing a hat emblazoned with the phrase: ‘We are creations of God’.
‘To all y’all who made mine and my family’s life hell for years, thanks – you made us stronger,’ wrote the YouTuber, who shares two children with fellow influencer and anti-vaxxer Chloe Szepanowski.
Mitch proceeded to share a message to his haters while sharing a photo of himself flipping the birdie while wearing a hat emblazoned with the phrase: ‘We are creations of God’
Mitch then quoted a bible passage about God ‘putting you back together right in front of the people who broke you’, before sharing another post in which he rejoiced: ‘All those people promoting the vax and telling their followers they are selfish are real quite now hey’
‘The same level you tore me down with, will now build me up. I will now wear the label anti vaxxer with pride,’ he declared.
Mitch then quoted a bible passage about God ‘putting you back together right in front of the people who broke you’, before sharing another post in which he rejoiced: ‘All those people promoting the vax and telling their followers they are selfish are real quite now hey’.
Mitch and Chloe made headlines during the pandemic for publicly ignoring Covid rules and emphasising their ‘pro-choice’ stance on social media.
Mitch and Chloe (right) made headlines during the pandemic for publicly ignoring Covid rules and emphasising their ‘pro-choice’ stance on social media
In November 2021, Mitch Orval reportedly caused a scene at the buffet area of a Gold Coast resort staff asked him to wear a face mask and shoes.
In August the same year, Chloe and Mitch were also slammed online for sharing a YouTube video of themselves shopping in Queensland without wearing masks.
While credited with saving more than 6million lives, the AstraZeneca Covid jab — known as Vaxzevria — has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over a rare but fatal side effect.
In August 2021 the couple were slammed online for sharing a YouTube video of themselves shopping in Queensland without wearing masks
In February, the pharmaceutical titan admitted in documents lodged with the UK High Court that it ‘can, in very rare cases, cause thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS)’.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Authority previously discontinued use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2023.
However, this week an Australian advocate of the coronavirus vaccines argued that avoiding that particular jab caused more deaths than it saved.
‘Overall, its safety profile is not as high as Pfizer due to clotting, but we need to keep this in perspective,’ Professor Peter Collignon told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.
Researchers believe the rare side effect occurs due to the modified cold virus lurking in the jab having an adverse effect on platelets in the blood, triggering clotting
‘For females aged 30-50 there is a 1-in-40,000 chance of a death from taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, but the overall death rate from taking it is 1-in-100,000.’
Prof Collignon said some commonly available drugs such as aspirin have similar death rates.
He said the producers of the vaccine and regulators could not have been expected to know the full potential side effects at a time when there appeared to be an urgent need to get it distributed.
‘You can’t test 100,000 in a trial, which is why it is importance to have surveillance after a drug becomes available,’ he said.
‘The side effect is real, we need to know these things, but it is a very rare side effect.’
Prof Collignon said that in the early days of the virus an ’80-year-old caught Covid, they had a 1-in-10 chance of dying, but it would have been 1-in-100,000 if they had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine’.
The AstraZeneca jab was soon superseded in the public mind by Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, and many therefore rejected it and waited for the supposedly improved treatments to arrive in Australia.
He said people put their health at risk during the pandemic by not taking the AstraZeneca vaccine even though it was available.
‘People waiting for the Pfizer vaccine caused a few hundred more deaths in Australia than we needed to have due to the adverse publicity,’ Prof Collignon, who lectures at the Australian National University’s medical school, said.
Professor Peter Collignon (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia that people put their health at risk during the pandemic by not taking the AstraZeneca vaccine even though it was available
