Labour says David Seymour’s media event where people getting measles test showed poor judgment

Acting PM David Seymour speaking to media at Auckland Grammar School on Saturday afternoon, as families arrived to get tested for measles. Photo / Vaimoana Mase

By Krystal Gibbens of RNZ

Labour’s health spokeswoman says David Seymour organising a media event in a space where people were getting measles immunity tests showed poor judgement and put people at risk.

On Saturday, Seymour, the acting Prime Minister, went to Auckland Grammar School where about 300 students and teachers were getting serology tests done to check whether they’d had their measles vaccinations, after a case was identified at the school.

It is understood that a number of the people onsite being tested were considered close contacts and were in quarantine.

Labour’s Ayesha Verrall said Seymour showed poor judgment and created a risk of spreading the disease by hosting the event there.

“People are in quarantine because they’re at risk of getting measles. Bringing new people in there heightens that risk of measles spread,” she said.

She said ministers should show leadership.

“It’s fine to have photo opportunities that raise awareness,” she said. “It’s just that in this particular case, he didn’t judge the safety of that event adequately.”

Seymour had planned to get a serology test himself at the event.

He told reporters he was initially told the testing station would be open to a wider range of people.

“When we arrived here we got new information,” he said. “We responded to that to make sure everyone was safe at all times.”

“Yet what we’re doing is drawing attention to the efforts that are being made and the steps that people can take to ensure that we stamp out this outbreak and that education continues, two goals that are very important,” he said.

Seymour then told reporters double-immunised people, such as himself, could be on school grounds, and that he would hope everyone attending was immunised.

Auckland Grammar School would be open on Monday to double-immunised students, he said.

– RNZ