COVAX-19 Developer Faces Sack for Refusing to Receive Vaccines Other Than Jab He Created

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Adelaide-based vaccine developer, Nikolai Petrovsky, may be sacked from the Flinders Medical Centre for refusing to get inoculated with a state-approved COVID-19 vaccination because he had already participated in a phase one study of a shot he developed at the centre, media outlets have reported.

As of Monday, workers at public and private hospitals in South Australia are required to prove they've received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to continue working.

"That could be very dangerous to do. There is no data on what would happen if you had a full course of one vaccine and then had another course of another kind of vaccine… Normally you would have to do clinical trials to establish the safety of that approach", Petrovsky told ABC Radio.

The vaccine developer added that he thought "it would be a little unusual if we had someone else's vaccine rather than have the one we've developed ourselves".

A nurse prepares a syringe to give a third dose of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Jerusalem, October 3, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

© REUTERS / RONEN ZVULUN

Flinders University said that it is following the requirements of health authorities, which require "anyone entering a hospital setting in SA [Southern Australia] to be fully vaccinated with a TGA-approved vaccine", adding that only those with a medical exemption can continue working without vaccination, but "whether Professor Petrovsky would qualify for such an exemption is a matter for health authorities".

COVAX-19, a protein-based vaccine developed by Professor Petrovsky's company Vaxine, with work done at Flinders University, has been approved for use in Iran and is now being considered for approval by the Australian Health Department.