Labour leader Chris Hipkins is defending not sharing advice on the risks of two vaccine doses for under 18s with the public during the pandemic.
He told the Herald that health practitioners were passing on the latest information to those showing up for a vaccine jab.
His comments follow the Herald revealing that Hipkins, the former Covid Response Minister, was made aware of the potential vaccine risks in March 2022, when tens of thousands of 12 to 17-year-olds had yet to get a second jab.
The risks were outlined in advice from the Covid-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CV TAG) in December 2021, which was about workers under 18 who needed two doses to comply with vaccine mandates.
It raised the possibility of “unnecessary risk” of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) after a second dose of the vaccine. It recommended considering changing the mandated requirements from two vaccine doses to one for the 12 to 17 age group.
The phase two report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response said the advice was never delivered to ministers, but it was referenced in a Cabinet paper in Hipkins’ name March 2022.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and Health Minister Simeon Brown have questioned why Hipkins didn’t make the information public.
At the time, 92% of the 12 to 17 age group, a population of 350,000 to 400,000, had received two doses of the vaccine. That meant about 30,000 youngsters were yet to have a second dose.
Hipkins told the Herald that sharing medical advice around vaccinations was not his area.
“In terms of my conscience, I never communicated medical advice around vaccination. That was always done by relevant health practitioners, including the director-general of health and the director of public health.
“I did not communicate, at any point, right the way through, that information other than reiterating the high-level messages around making sure you’re making informed decisions and consulting with medical practitioners.”
Those were the professionals who were talking about the myocarditis risks with people showing up to be vaccinated, he said.
“They were being given the most up-to-date information, every day. I understand parents’ concern. I’m a parent myself.”
A Herald analysis has found data to suggest myocarditis or pericarditis cases among 12-17s has been very rare: dozens of cases among a population of up to 400,000.
Hipkins agreed with the Royal Commission’s findings that the CV TAG December 2021 advice should have gone to ministers at the time.
“It’s a source of considerable frustration to me because it would have been material. Certainly, the fact it didn’t go to ministers until March was a massive failing on the part of the system as a whole.”
Would he have made it public if he had received the advice in December 2021? Or recommended changing the relevant vaccine passes and mandates to reflect the advice, which happened after it was referenced in his March 2022 Cabinet paper?
“Those are all hypothetical things. I can’t say for certainty what the decision would have been. But it almost certainly would have resulted in more questions being asked.”
He said that, by then, most of the vaccine mandates had already required the relevant workers to be double vaccinated.
“So it wasn’t sort of material information at that point.”
Peters has accused Hipkins of denying he was aware of the CV TAG advice – to the Royal Commission and, after its report landed, in the House – when he knew he had received it.
“It is an outrageous situation where many tens of thousands of children and teenagers were exposed to the known risks of having two vaccine doses yet the public, and more importantly the parents, were not told,” Peters said.
“It is alarming that the inquiry did not come to this obvious and provable conclusion [that Covid ministers were aware of the CV TAG advice] but instead relied upon Hipkins and [Labour minister Ayesha] Verrall’s denials.
“To attempt to deny these facts publicly and rely on the inept inquiry report, points to this being a disgraceful cover-up – as it now seems to be.”
Hipkins rubbished being part of any cover-up.
“We participated fully in both Royal Commission processes, answered their questions. We’re talking about something that happened five years ago, so to the best of everybody’s recollection, we’ve basically been trying to be as helpful as possible,” he said.
“It’s important to remember that, in the context of this March 2022 paper, there was a lot happening on that day.”
Cabinet was also considering how the Covid response needed to change after the peak of the Omicron variant. It agreed to follow the public health advice and end the vaccine passes, as well as the education mandate. This was implemented at the start of April 2022.
Vaccine passes in certain settings, such as cafes, had been applicable to the 12 to 17 age group, while the education mandate also covered 12 to 17-year-old workers or volunteers, including in home-based education and care.
Other vaccine mandates continued – at MIQ facilities, the border and in the health and disability sector, among others – because they involved vulnerable people, or because of the risk at the border of a new variant from overseas.
While these mandates had no specific age restrictions, they generally did not involve any workers under 18. By September 2022 they had all ended.
Hipkins said it was impossible to know how many in the 12-17 age group were captured in the education mandate and by the vaccine pass requirements.
“It’s a small group: home-based early childhood education [with teenagers living in the house, who would need to be vaccinated, if present], after school care programmes, and if a school was employing someone under the age of 18.
“That’s a pretty narrow field of people.”
Timeline
2021
June: Medsafe grants provisional approval for the Covid vaccine for those aged 12 and older.
August: The Health Ministry’s Covid-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CV TAG) recommends those aged 12 and older to be vaccinated.
October: Cabinet introduces the education mandate, requiring education workers and volunteers 12 and older (including those in home-based care) to have two vaccine doses by January 1, 2022.
November 5: CV TAG’s advice to the ministry notes concerns about younger age groups “more at risk than older age groups of myocarditis after the second dose”. Recommends consideration of one dose for those 18 and under for the education mandate.
December 9: CV TAG’s updated advice, sent to Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, is that two doses for vaccine mandates isn’t justified. Two doses “may add unnecessary risk to increasing the likelihood of myocarditis”. Recommends considering one dose for under-18s for all vaccine mandates.
December 22: Bloomfield sends a paper to Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins that includes the CV TAG’s November advice and recommendation, but not the December advice. The Royal Commission describes the failure to deliver the December advice as “significant”.
About 24.4% of the 12 to 17 age group (or about 91,000 young people) at this time are not double-vaccinated, while 9% (about 34,000 young people) get the second jab between this point and when the vaccine mandates are lifted.
2022
January 7: Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall makes a note in the margins of Bloomfield’s paper to Hipkins, who is on leave. It says: “CV TAG’s concerns, at the time, were about insufficient data on safety of second dose.”
March: A Cabinet paper in Hipkins’ name sent to the Cabinet Social Wellbeing Committee, includes the CV TAG December advice. It is primarily looking at the 5-11 age group, and does not make any recommendations for the 12 to 17 age group.
At the time, 92% of 12 to 17-year-olds have had two doses, meaning about 30,000 young people are yet to have a second dose.
The committee also considers a Cabinet paper on the changing Covid response, following the Omicron peak. It recommends ending the education mandate and vaccine passes, which are applicable to 12 to 17-year-olds, because their public health benefits are now limited. Cabinet agrees to this at its next meeting.
April 4: The education vaccine mandate and the vaccine passes end.
July: The mandates for border workers, prison workers, and Fire and Emergency staff end.
September: The remaining mandates (for health, disability and aged care workplaces) end.
2026
March: The Royal Commission of Inquiry Phase Two report lands. It finds the decisions taken and methods used during the Covid response were “considered and appropriate”. Areas where the response could have been better included better monitoring of the use and impacts of vaccination requirements, including job losses. Vaccination requirements were “a valid intervention” but should be used with great care.
Coalition ministers accuse Labour’s Covid ministers of not doing enough, based on what they knew about the CV TAG’s concerns over the two-dose vaccine mandate requirements for 12 to 17-year-olds. Covid ministers point to the Royal Commission’s report, which said they weren’t informed of the CV TAG December 2021 advice.
The Herald finds a Cabinet paper, in Hipkins’ name, that shows him sharing the CV TAG December advice with Cabinet colleagues in March 2022, which led to the education mandate and vaccine passes ending.
Hipkins says he engaged with the Royal Commission in good faith and to the best of his recollection of what was a rapidly-changing and high-pressure environment. Asked about why he didn’t make the advice public, he said health and medical practitioners were making the risks known to those showing up to get vaccinated.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.