A leaked recording from the taping of a Channel Seven special on Australia's Covid response reveals a furious audience turning on a panelist.
Spotlight, which aired on Sunday night, covered several aspects of the pandemic response including border closures, lockdowns, vaccine injuries and long Covid.
It was the subject of the vaccines that produced a fiery confrontation left out of the show between infectious diseases paediatrician Professor Robert Booy, one of four panelists in the studio, and the audience.
The outburst followed a question by audience member Ayse Goknur Shanal, who declared proudly that she did not take a single Covid vaccine.
MsGoknur Shanal described herself as 'was one of the few people in the legal sector who took on the TGA and the rest of the government establishment for government corruption and medical corruption'.
'Why isn't there research done, three years in now, comparing the immune systems of those who got the first dose, the second dose and the third dose and the aftermath and the latency periods in comparison to how the non-vaccinated are faring right now?' she asked.
'We have a society that is chronically ill in winter season and it is not the unvaccinated.'
Professor Booy answered that 'Australia has among the best immunologists in the world' and 'we do look at the responses to vaccination'.
A woman present for the taping of a Spotlight special riled up the audience with her question about how Covid vaccines affect the immune system - but it was cut from the broadcast
'We do look at people who have had no exposure to Covid or vaccination, and their immune systems are compared,' he said. 'So you're wrong.'
'And as to being healthy, that's great. I'm really pleased for you.'
The program that aired on Sunday night immediately cut to another answer by a fellow panelist, ANU Infectious Diseases associate professor Dr Sanjaya Senanayake.
However, leaked audio reveals the exchange with Professor Booy got a lot more heated.
The questioner attempted to interject with: 'I'm sorry...'
'For people who've had Covid, excuse me, for people who've had Covid, excuse me, let me finish,' Prof Booy said.
'People who have had Covid, people who haven't been vaccinated get more severe disease and they're more likely to get long Covid.'
The audience erupted with one man heard shouting: 'Bulls***'.
'That's f***ing lies, mate,' another yelled.
'You should hand your licence back,' another added.
'That's the biggest lie' and 'snake oil salesman' were also heard being shouted from audience members.
Spotlight host Michael Usher was forced to intervene to regain order.
'I'm loving that you've got views,' he told the crowd.
Professor Robert Booy's defence of the Covid vaccines led to a fiery confrontation
'Please interject. I want to get to as many questions as possible. Don't swear, I'm going to cop it in the audience, so please don't do that. Carry on.'
Leaked audio also revealed a question about vaccines asked by independent journalist Alison Bevege was also left on the cutting room floor.
Mr Bevege, who writes a Substack Letters from Australia, held up a laminated A4 printout of a big black triangle pointed down, with the label Black Triangle Scheme.
'Why is it that most Australians don't know what this symbol means?' she asked.
'This was on your vaccine box - your gene vaccine, the mRNA products for Covid. This was on the box and the inserts.It means they're provisionally registered.
'They would have been illegal in 2016. They changed the law in 2018 to allow products on the market that hadn't finished all the testing required for full registration.
'This symbol meant your doctor or you were supposed to report any possible side-effects to the TGA because they're still building the safety profile of the drug.
'Because people didn't know about this, they didn't report their side-effects.
'So the TGA does not know the exact number of people who died and were injured from these products.
'That's why you've got an audience full of angry people. Thank you.'
A round of applause could be heard from the audience.
While the entire question was cut for the aired version of the program, Professor Senanayake's response was left in.
Independent journalist Alison Bevege asked a question about the vaccines' provisional authorisation but it was cut from the broadcast show while her later interjection was left in
'If we are going to see really, really, really rare side effects, we've had seven to 10 billion doses to see those and we haven't heard of anything unusual at this point but we will keep looking,' he said.
'That's not true!' Ms Bevege shouted from the audience, appearing to do so at random in the aired show.
'You are not collecting the data in a controlled manner. That's not a test, that's just giving it to everybody.'
'I disagree with that,'Professor Senanayake replied.
The TGA told Daily Mail Australia the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines 'was supported by comprehensive safety information and strong promotion of adverse event reporting'.
'We published the COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Report, first fortnightly and later monthly, for over 2 years,' the watchdog said.
'Adverse event reporting was also featured in the vaccination provider training and in other health professional-targeted materials.'
Daily Mail Australia contacted Channel Seven and Professor Booy for comment.
