Katie’s death – summary timeline

The Pandemic Death of an Artist

“Katie Margaret Lees tragically died on 4^th August 2021.

Katie was a healthy 34-year-old living in Redfern in Sydney. She was known as a vibrant, funny, empathetic, imaginative, passionate human being, full of life. Katie was forging her career in writing and performance that had taken her around the world performing in Short and Sweet Chennai India, touring Italy performing in high schools, performing physical theatre in refugee camps in Europe and writing and performing stand-up comedy in Sydney. Her one-woman comedy show called Temporary was about one woman’s struggles to survive the lunacy of the corporate workplace. Temporary played at the Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals to rave reviews and was due to play after lockdowns at Flight Path Theatre. Making people laugh and cry at the craziness of life was her unstoppable, wonderful gift to the world.

Katie accepted that vaccination was an important aspect of overcoming COVID-19. Katie had also heard reports from the UK and Europe of the risk of vaccine-induced thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome from AstraZeneca. She poured over every piece of information she could find about the benefits and risks of vaccination for weeks. Finally, in mid-July, Katie made her decision. The last time I saw Katie alive was on 22^nd July 2021, the morning before she got her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccination. We met in a park with my granddaughter, her much loved niece, Lottie. Katie spent a lot of that time explaining to me why she had decided to get vaccinated. I can still see her smiling as she told me how proud she was of the action she was taking for the good of the community.

In the ten days following her AstraZeneca vaccination, Katie experienced some headaches and a rash appeared on her arm. She saw a GP about the rash, and he prescribed antibiotics.

In the early afternoon of Sunday, 1^st August 2021, Katie’s house mates found her lying on the floor with severe head and neck pain and incoherent. She was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital by ambulance with severe bleeding in her brain.

I watched as the ICU nurse extracted the ventilator tubes out of my daughter’s lungs, throat and mouth. We had spent the previous three and a half days sitting beside her in neurological ICU, Katie deeply unconscious, an indent in her head where the doctors had had to remove a piece of her skull to relieve the pressure in her brain.

Now the moment of final good-bye was here. I had triggered the end of my daughter’s life with a gentle nod to the ICU nurse, Jenny. Jenny carefully completed her work and my daughter lay there still, with the rising and falling of her chest now stopped. After all the noise, phone calls and strain of the past three days, a weary silence settled over the room. The screen displaying heart rate and blood pressure had been turned off. The only display was body temperature. We watched as Katie’s body temperature slowly began to drop. My other daughter started to ask ‘how do we know..’, when the nurse came back in. I looked up at her.

‘Is she gone?’ I asked.

‘Yes, she has’

It was over. The pain and horror of the past three days was over. Katie’s life was over. It was 4.45pm Wednesday 4^th August 2021. Our Katie was dead at just thirty-four years old. There were five of us gathered around her bed. Penny, Katie’s mother, Annika, Katie’s younger sister by two years, Jonathan, Katie’s younger brother by five years and Hamish, Katie’s younger brother by seven years. We merged together in a group embrace, sobbing. It felt totally unreal. As we gathered around Katie’s body we watched the temperature slowly dropping from living temperature of 36.5, to 34.2, to 31.0, and then slip into the high 20s and then the mid 20s until we couldn’t look at it anymore. It didn’t matter anymore.

A doctor slipped in through the curtains. He ran through the final checks required to declare Katie dead and to complete her death certificate. Time of death 4.59pm.

‘I’m done,’ said Annika.

Despite the amazing medical staff at RPA doing everything they could including massive brain surgery, my Katie, the creative, vibrant and funny writer and performer, my eldest child, died at 5pm on Wednesday 4^th August 2021. The senior medical staff had no qualms declaring that she died from the AstraZeneca vaccine. Katie’s death certificate and the final report of the NSW Vaccine Safety Review Panel both confirm this. Cause of death was vaccine-induced thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome.

Katie died in service of our community. Katie died because she wanted to do all she could to foster connection between people and to ensure that we always see the truth of our lives reflected to us through the work of our artists.

On the 12th March 2021, Scott Morrison was acting Health Minister when suspensions of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe due to reports of blood clotting and deaths; including Norway stating that the risk of rare but serious side effects did not outweigh the benefits, were occurring (read more here). “When asked if he was personally worried about the news from Denmark, Norway and Iceland, Mr Morrison said he was not.”[1]

Australia’s first report of TTS from AstraZeneca was on 2^nd April 2021.[2] On the 7^th April 2021, the EMA announced a possible link between AstraZeneca and blood clots with low platelets “with most case reports in women under 60 years of age”[3] and the UK started offering under-30’s an alternative to the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after cases of TTS from AstraZeneca had caused 19 tragic deaths. On the 8^th April 2021, ATAGI recommended that Pfizer is the preferred vaccine over AstraZeneca for those aged under 50 due to a higher risk of TTS.[4]

On the 7^th May 2021, the UK started offering a preference for those aged 30-39 to receive an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.[5] As at 16^th June 2021, there were tragically 68 deaths from AZ [UK], with a higher reported incidence rate in younger adults and higher again in younger women.[6] On the 17^th June 2021, ATAGI updated advice to recommend Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for those aged 16 to under 60 years.[7]

In the wake of international media criticism of the vaccine rollout on 17^th June, describing Australia as “one of the worst performers in the OECD,” with roughly 3% of the population vaccinated, [8] Scott Morrison announced two decisions (that we can now see were calculated against expert advice, to cover failures in the vaccine rollout) on the 28^th June 2021; introducing a new no fault indemnity scheme for general practitioners administering AstraZeneca and, that anyone over the age of 18 could take AstraZeneca.

Lockdowns had just begun in Greater Sydney, where Katie lived, on 26th June 2021, which prompted her to receive a vaccination – to help the community end lockdowns, lockdowns which probably would not have been required had the vaccination rate been higher. Daily COVID-19 case numbers in NSW on 28^th June 2021 were sadly 130, with 124 linked to one cluster – except they were nowhere near the scale recommended by ATAGI on 10th April 2021 to change their advice, where Professor Allen Cheng (Co-Chair of ATAGI [2018-2021] and Chair of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines – ACV), said ATAGI’s decision to draw the line at preferring the Pfizer vaccine over AstraZeneca for those aged under 50 took into account the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in Australia in the coming months or year.”[9]

On the 3rd July 2021, Rick Morton reports in The Saturday Paper that Scott Morrison ignored Chief Health Officers’ advice –

“[…] the country’s chief health officers urged Scott Morrison to dump its commitment to AstraZeneca. […] “They wanted AstraZeneca abandoned,” one source says, “but Morrison wouldn’t do it.”

Rick Morton reports that the Health Minister Greg Hunt was aware that the indemnification scheme was a solution to cover the GP in the event of serious complications or death from AstraZeneca. ““But at the meeting [of national cabinet] there was no discussion about encouraging people to go out and get the shot.” […] What state premiers were not expecting at that press conference was an explicit push from the prime minister for young people to get AZ. “But the advice does not preclude persons under 60 from getting the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Morrison said. “And so if you wish to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, then we would encourage you to go and have that discussion with your GP.””

Rick Morton reports that Queensland’s Chief Health Officer (at the time), states that she does not want under 40’s to get AstraZeneca and that: “We’ve seen up to 49 deaths in the UK from that syndrome. I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die. Now, wouldn’t it be terrible if our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic died because of a vaccine?”

Asked if her view was consistent with other state chief health officers, Dr Young said, “Yes.” […]

On Thursday morning, Chris Blyth, co-chair of ATAGI, reiterated the body’s advice: Pfizer remains the preferred vaccine for under 60s. When pressed on whether young people should be getting AZ, he said: “There are some pressing situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small.””[10]

On the 10^th July 2021, a risk-benefit analysis for people aged under 60 in Australia investigated TTS following AZ: “For the current situation of low incidence of COVID-19, the risk of fatality from possible TTS or serious morbidity such as stroke in healthy younger adults, is unacceptable in Australia, when there is a choice of other vaccines.”[11] Messaging and risk assessment by the government and media failed to transparently communicate the known higher risk of TTS from AZ for younger women.

What is informed consent if the information to be informed with, is not communicated by the government or medical authorities to doctors and patients alike, and therefore is not accessible for the patient to give consent on the basis of being informed? Anecdotally, we have heard from medical professionals comments such as “the government lied” and “they knew people would die.”

Between 28^th June 2021 and 24^th July 2021, GPs in Greater Sydney were asked to act on the Prime Minister’s interpretation of ATAGI’s advice, and in this period, the risks of taking AstraZeneca for people under 60 in Australia did not outweigh the benefits according to ATAGI, and the risk-benefit analysis in Australia.

Katie received AstraZeneca on 22^nd July 2021, after Scott Morrison’s decision on 28^th June 2021, but before ATAGI’s official declaration of an outbreak and updated (without changing existing) advice on 24th July to ‘strongly consider any vaccine including’ AstraZeneca (based also on supply issues of COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer). Katie was one in approximately 76,595 AstraZeneca COVID-19 first doses administered to people aged under 40 since 28^th June 2021.[12] Encouraging everyone to take AstraZeneca on 22^nd July, Scott Morrison states: “I think I’ve been very clear that as Prime Minister I’m responsible for the vaccination program.”[13]

On the 22nd July 2021, Ange McCormack interviewed Scott Morrison on Triple J’s ‘Hack’, where she asks:
“McCormack: It is a simple question, though. When will young people be able to get vaccinated?
Prime Minister: Well, right now they can get vaccinated right now with AstraZeneca…
McCormack: But that’s not the vaccine ATAGI recommends. […]
McCormack: It’s still not recommended for young people, though, and it doesn’t fill a lot of them with confidence. Prime Minister, today you called the vaccine rollout a marathon. A marathon is a race. Why are we coming last?”[14]

Eerily, also on the 22^nd July, The Monthly’s Rachel Withers writes: “A small number of people may, in fact, die from taking AstraZeneca, because they “took responsibility” and came forward and got the one vaccine on offer to them. And that will be on the PM who left them with no real choice.”[15]

“If there’s high prevalence of Covid, more people are likely to end up infected and in critical care, and if they’re over-60, more likely to die. In that case, it makes sense to give Oxford/AstraZeneca to everybody. But when there’s a lower prevalence of Covid, an age limit would be appropriate, she [Dr Sue Pavord, consultant haematologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust] said.”[16]

If Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had not offered the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged over 18 on 28th June 2021, several people, including Katie Lees, would still be alive.

Eleven people tragically died from AstraZeneca in Australia.

– Katie Lees’ Family