Simin Williams
In 2021, Biontech’s Comirnaty, still in clinical trial, was mandated on 40 percent of the NZ workforce. However, unvaccinated were banned from cafés/restaurants, churches, libraries, theatres, gymnasiums, and organised sport (including high school students). This strongly coerced people to get vaccinated or be excluded from society. We were told Comirnaty, was highly effective, preventing serious infection, hospitalisations and deaths.
PM Jacinda Ardern, by her own admission, created a two-tier society. Those who refused the vaccine were denied basic human rights. The mandate non-compliant lost their jobs, businesses, homes, right to attend weddings, funerals, etc.
Come Dec 2021, we were told that two doses of that vaccine were no longer enough for protection, so a 3rd dose of the same Comirnaty, a booster, was necessary. Some people have had their fifth injection.
Some mandates were lifted on April 5th 2022, three weeks after the Parliament protests.
In April 2023, the new bivalent Comirnaty was offered to anyone over 30.
It is now imperative that we see clearly presented data in regard to Covid vaccine performance, so that we can analyse the result of this national experiment.
MoH weekly data published online shows the vaccination status of Covid hospitalisations and deaths for the vaccinated and boosted. “Not fully vaccinated”, includes deaths for never vaccinated, only one dose or within 14 days of the 2nd injection.
As of Oct 10th 2023, of the 4872 deaths within 28 days of being reported as a case, 3647 (75 percent) were among boosted, 650 (13 percent) among double-vaccinated and 575 (12 percent) among “not fully vaccinated”.
Farah Hancock’s RNZ “Covid-19 data visualisations” based on MoH data, shows 14 percent of the population are unvaccinated. A recent OIA request revealed 354 deaths among those who received zero jabs (7 percent of deaths). This is half the deaths expected among unvaccinated if the vaccine was useless.
If Comirnaty was preventing deaths, shouldn’t MoH data show more than 14 percent of the deaths in the never-vaccinated? Why are we seeing the opposite? It seems the unvaccinated slashed their death rates by half, simply by avoiding any jabs!
MoH data shows that since April 2023, 70 deaths occurred among double-jabbed and 690 deaths among boosted, nearly 10 times of those double-jabbed.
The boosted portion of population vs. double-jabbed is 53 percent to 47 percent.
Some of Hancock’s trending charts featured low deaths and hospitalisations in the unvaccinated, but the vaccinated, especially the boosted, were above their proportion of population. Those charts were “temporarily” removed in July 2022. Unpalatable/inconvenient data?!
These observations are contrary to Ashley Bloomfield’s assertion that Covid would seek out the unvaccinated! Covid seems intent on seeking out, hospitalising and killing the vaccinated!
In July 2021, Chris Hipkins announced he would chase up the unvaccinated. I would now like to chase up some statistical and scientific accountability from the PM and MoH.
We would all benefit from seeing a clear chart presentation from the MoH showing the following for the local DHB area:
• Covid infection rates,
• reinfection rates,
• hospitalisation and death rates by vaccination status
laid out in the following categories: age groups, co-morbidities, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 vaccines, and MoH’s vaccine efficacy based on NZ data.
The explanation repeatedly offered for the high booster death rate is that it’s expected among the elderly and compromised. Let’s see that clearly laid out.
The MoH should produce clearly presented data as mentioned above, so that we can accurately see “the science”.
If the MoH did the same for every district health board area in the country, then we would know exactly what the vaccine is or isn’t doing.
References: COVID-19: Case demographics – Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
Covid-19 data visualisations: NZ in numbers | RNZ News
Expert response from Christian Marchello, Manager Vaccine Safety Surveillance and Research, National Public Health Service:
In response to Simin Williams’ letter, there is a wealth of publicly available data from official sources, both nationally and internationally, that supports the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines at reducing hospitalisations and deaths from the infection.
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, increased mortality from all causes (compared to pre-pandemic years) was observed during 2022, which coincided with the Omicron wave in New Zealand, with subsequent deaths attributable to COVID-19. Reporting also showed that deaths from COVID-19 were more likely to occur among those who had not received a primary course of vaccine, compared with those who had been vaccinated – see: https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/covid-19-mortality-aotearoa-new-zealand-inequities-risk
In the meantime, we encourage people to only go to trusted sources to get reliable information. We also continue to encourage media organisations and social media companies to continue to be proactive in helping to manage misinformation.
One of the best ways to stop misinformation from spreading is by only sharing information from official sources like Te Whatu Ora, the Ministry of Health, health providers, or reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal publications.
There are numerous New Zealand agencies monitoring mortality rates and the safety of COVID-19 vaccines within New Zealand and internationally, including:
• The Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM), National Pharmacovigilance Centre
• The COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board (CV-ISMB)
• Medsafe (New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority)
• Vaccine Safety Surveillance and Research (VSSR) within the National Immunisation Programme
• The Public Health Agency (PHA) within Manatū Hauora
• Statistics New Zealand.
We also encourage people to review the wealth of information that is available from official sources regarding COVID-19, including:
Current cases: COVID-19: Current cases – Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
COVID-19 trends and insights reporting: COVID-19 Trends and Insights – Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
Access to more detailed data for researchers, including international comparisons: COVID-19: Data resources – Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
Reporting of adverse events following immunisation: COVID-19 Overview of Vaccine Reports (medsafe.govt.nz)
A publication by VSSR about COVID-19 vaccine safety in New Zealand: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049384822004893
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