Jackie ‘O’ Henderson clarifies she’s pro-vaccine after Pete Evans comments

Sydney breakfast radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson were slammed by medical professionals on Monday after they allowed anti-vaxxer Pete Evans to express his unscientific and dangerous views unchallenged on air.

But on Thursday, the KIIS FM duo clarified that they ‘believe in vaccinations’ and acknowledged their importance in reducing the spread of preventable diseases.

During an interview with Dr Harry Nespolon, the president of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Jackie confirmed that her nine-year-old daughter, Kitty, had been vaccinated.

‘I have always believed in [vaccinations] myself because I feel like you’re doing it for the community as a whole,’ she said. 

Jackie, 45, explained that she had no reason to doubt the safety of vaccines, but if her child did exhibit ‘behavioural changes’ after a jab, she would be ‘doing a lot more research’.

‘If it had happened to me, I would imagine I would be doing a lot more research and probably more convinced that [vaccines do] have an ill effect on some kids,’ she said.

There is no connection between vaccination and ‘behavioural changes’ in children.  

The supposed link between the MMR vaccine and autism, which was first proposed by discredited ex-physician Andrew Wakefield in 1998, was exposed as a fraud years later.

Kyle also made his support of vaccinations known, telling Dr Nespolon: ‘To me, I’ve got no children, but I’ve always grown up thinking we vaccinate against these [diseases] to try and eradicate them out of society.’ 

He confirmed that if a COVID-19 vaccine became available, he would want to take it.

‘I would just want one because the alternative possibly could be death. So yeah, I would get one,’ he said.

Dr Nespolon reminded Kyle and Jackie that just because Australia has a low rate of preventable diseases, such as mumps and polio, it doesn’t mean vaccinations are no longer necessary.

On the contrary, ongoing vaccinations are necessary to keep the numbers of such cases as low as possible.

‘If you look at almost all the vaccinations that have been introduced, the incidents of disease just drops away to almost zero – but not zero,’ he said. 

He then cited COVID-19 as an example of ‘what happens if you don’t have an immunisation for an infectious disease’.

Dr Nespolon had previously described Kyle and Jackie’s interview with Pete on Monday as ‘extremely disappointing’.

During the interview, the former MKR judge had encouraged listeners to question the safety of vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic – even though vaccines are completely safe and have helped eliminate deadly diseases, saving millions of lives.  

While Kyle and Jackie did not apologise for their one-sided discussion with Pete, the interview with Dr Nespolon seems to have been a deliberate attempt to balance out their coverage of the vaccination ‘debate’.

Jackie had been a cheerleader for Pete just last week, telling listeners she ‘felt a little sorry for him’ after he had received a backlash for sharing unscientific opinions about COVID-19.

‘The media makes him look like this crazy loon, but he’s not at all,’ she said. ‘He’s looking at alternatives, but they really are going so hard on him. I think it’s really unfair.’

During his interview with Kyle and Jackie on Monday, Pete said he couldn’t agree with the flu jab, citing supposed scientific research claiming ‘there is the potential that it increases your risk of coming down with greater symptoms of COVID-19’.

Pete went on to insist he was not an anti-vaxxer but instead ‘pro-choice for medical freedom’.

Many anti-vaccination campaigners are beginning to use the term ‘pro-choice’ – which is most commonly associated with abortion rights – instead of ‘anti-vaxxer’ in order to make their views seem more socially acceptable.

Some of Australia’s largest coronavirus outbreaks have occurred in aged care facilities, including Newmarch House in western Sydney, where 89 residents were infected and 18 died.

Elderly people are considered more vulnerable to the deadly respiratory infection, and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee recommended visitors and staff be vaccinated against the flu to help protect residents.    

Pete, a Paleolithic diet enthusiast, has been widely criticised by former fans and experts alike for spruiking dangerous conspiracy theories relating to COVID-19.  

He was recently fined $25,200 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for promoting a lamp he claimed could help treat the ‘Wuhan virus’.