Barbara Bal

@barbarabalcpc · Twitter · 2026-09-10 02:00 UTC

As a mother, the hardest part was never being allowed to ask questions. When reports emerged of a healthy Florida physician who developed ITP and died shortly after receiving a COVID vaccine, parents of children with the same rare blood disorder simply wanted to understand the potential risks. What happens when a vaccine that triggers an immune response is given to someone whose immune system is already overactive? Instead of answers, any attempt to ask questions was met with silence, dismissal, repeated government talking points, or the “anti-vaxxer” label. That same pressure followed us into every part of life. Competitive sport became conditional on vaccination. University applications closed under campus mandates. Even the Prime Minister publicly used language about the unvaccinated that NO PARENT should ever have to hear directed at their CHILD. It was never presented as a choice. It was compliance or exclusion — from sport, from education, and from community. I am not writing this in anger. I am writing it because a parent should be able to weigh medical risks, ask legitimate questions, and protect their child without being shamed into silence. That is why I support MP Dean Allison’s vaccine inquiry. The inquiry is fundamentally about procedural justice: the right for our stories to be heard. Please take the time to follow the inquiry. Hear the stories. @DeanAllisonMP @AllisonInquiry