Back2Nature childcare director Jenny Hamilton says private educators will put children's safety at risk, more than Covid-19. Photo / Tania Whyte
Back2Nature childcare director Jenny Hamilton says private educators will put children's safety at risk, more than Covid-19. Photo / Tania Whyte
Northland children are being put at risk as unvaccinated home-based educators teach "underground" following the vaccine mandate, a local service provider says.
Under the vaccine mandate for the education sector everyone in a household – aged 12 and up - where home-based education takes place must have had their firstjab by November 16.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins previously said the decision to mandate vaccines was a necessary step to protect the vulnerable communities education and healthcare workers interact with.
The staff and student numbers of Back2Nature Childcare – which operates in Northland, Wellsford, and Hamilton - have both dwindled by almost a third.
Back2Nature director and teacher Jenny Hamilton said they had lost one of their four teachers and seven of their 25 educators, as well as around 25 students.
She said there were several reasons staff had opted to remain unvaccinated.
"Some of them are health reasons, some of them have got heart issues, and the risk is just too much."
"Others are opposing because of their lifestyle as they believe in holistic living that it goes against their philosophy."
The opinion that not enough "hard research" into the vaccine had been done was another reason.
However, the Ministry of Health (MoH) assured people that while the vaccines were developed "very quickly", no shortcuts were taken in the necessary processes that may compromise safety.
Back2Nature childcare owner Jenny Hamilton says she has lost 7 educators and one teacher because of the mandate. Photo / Tania Whyte
According to the Ministry of Health, the Pfizer vaccine does not contain animal products, antibiotics, blood products, DNA, egg proteins, fetal material, gluten, microchips, pork products, preservatives, soy, and latex. The vial stopper is made with synthetic rubber bromobutyl.
"It is also known that it is a trial medication and there is hesitancy specifically with the technology used for the Pfizer vaccine.
Auckland University vaccinologist Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris recently told the Advocate's sister publication the NZ Herald Pfizer vaccine trials for efficacy and safety were achieved late in 2020.
They were no longer experimental once authorised for use. She said there had been a misunderstanding among some that because the trial end date is 2023, the vaccine must be "experimental".
The end date is to allow for other endpoints, one example being the effect booster doses.
The departed staff from Back2Nature had "basically" gone "underground", Hamilton said, as they continued to privately teach the students who left.
"The private service will have no government funding, no police or safety checks."
"It has the potential to put children at risk, more than Covid-19," she said.
Hamilton feared more teachers and educators would leave as they could continue to teach privately.
"We were working in level 4 both years and nobody was vaccinated. Now, we have high vaccination rates, we are in level 2, and the teachers are not safe to work with the students."
"I do not know how that makes sense," she said.
Despite an increase in vaccinations, Northland continues to lag behind the rest of the country with the second lowest vaccination rate of 76 per cent double dosed and 86 per cent of the 161,320 people eligible having had one dose.
Tairāwhiti, in Gisborne, has the lowest rate with 75 per cent of its 41,965 eligible population fully vaccinated.
Whangārei home-based educator Zero2Hero "almost" closed as a result of the vaccine mandate.
Director Nikki Peers said it had forced some educators to go private because they simply couldn't work under the new laws.
"We don't want to break relationships, the child has been with the educator for two or three years and we didn't want to separate them."
"The educators were also worried about their livelihood," she said.
Peers said they prided themselves on quality care and not on their vaccination status.
They had a risk management protocol in place already and if there were any signs or symptoms they "know the drill".
Peers and one other staff member - from a total six - did not want to be vaccinated and the swift pressure dealt by the mandate had "brought segregation" among them.
"It is my choice to manage myself with my natural immunity and I should be able to have that choice. It is about pro-choice and anti-mandate.''
World Health Organisation data shows as of November 24, there have been 258,164,425 confirmed cases of Covid and 5,166,192 deaths – more than entire population of New Zealand.
When it comes to vaccine-related deaths in New Zealand, only one of the 94 reported to MedSafe up to November 10 have been linked to the vaccination.
That case was the death of a woman who was likely to have suffered from vaccine-induced myocarditis and has been previously reported. The Coroner is yet to make a final determination on the actual cause of death.
The deaths are among 32,372 adverse events - 1125 of which were serious - that have were reported to Medsafe since Pfizer vaccinations began being administered in New Zealand earlier this year.
Just over 6.6 million doses have been given so far with an average of 49 out of every 10,000 people reporting an adverse event.
Zero2hero home-based childcare owner Nikki Peers says she is "pro-choice" and "anti-mandate". Photo / Tania Whyte
Hautū (leader) of Operations and Integration for the Ministry of Education, Sean Teddy, said people had always been able to provide childcare in a home setting.
But any private childcare arrangement was unlicensed meaning children may not receive the benefits that came with licensed learning, such as access to learning or professional development support, Teddy said.
He went on to add that parents were also not eligible for subsidised Government funding.
Teddy confirmed private arrangements were not impacted by the vaccine mandate for educators but could be subject to other Covid-19 health requirements if they were deemed a private service or business.
Under the Government's new Covid-19 Protection Framework home-based educators providing private service could only operate in red or orange settings with a vaccine certificate as it is "close-contact in-home aid".
