Proceedings filed in the High Court questioning the legality of the vaccine roll out

High Court coat of arms, Wellington, New Zealand. Photo / Ross Setford

The legality of Aotearoa's vaccine roll out has been called into question in proceedings filed in the High Court at Wellington.

Documents put foward to court by Nga Kaitiaki Tuku Ihu Inc claim the Medicines Act was breached and seeks a declaration that the vaccination rollout is unlawful.

They also state that there is a lack of coherent research on the effects or risks of the Pfizer vaccine for use on elderly, immunocomprimised, pregnant women or people using medicines.

But Auckland University vaccines expert Dr Helen Petousis-Harris said after 100 million doses, the vaccine was hardly experimental, and the idea that it could be was nonsense.

Counsel for the applicant, Nelson-based lawyer Sue Grey, said she has done a lot of investigating on behalf of the group of "concerned citizens" and said she identified "serious legal failings" in the way the vaccine had been approved in New Zealand.

The action has been brought against the Minister of Health and the director general of health, as well as Jacinda Ardern, among others.

Proceedings were filed in the High Court at Wellington last Thursday and Grey said they had a teleconference with a judge on Monday and Wednesday this week.

The High Court at Wellington has confirmed there is a substantive hearing on Wednesday, May 12.

Grey said their opposition to the rollout includes how it was approved under provisional consent, which she said was intended for cases with a limited number of people.

She claimed the Government had focused on a PR campaign and made "misleading and deceptive claims".

"The idea that everyone must have it, and they must have it or they'll lose there job is a huge change from how other treatments have been approved in the past."

Grey said the group was made up of people from around New Zealand, and said it had sort of become a hub of people to question the what some say is "propaganda" from the Government.

The plaintiffs also seeks the Government to halt the vaccination rollout plan.

As well as this, the document also states there was a breach of the Fair Trading Act, and is in breach of the Bill of Rights.

Petousis-Harris told the Herald this action was extermely unhelpful and deeply disappointing when there is no data to prove what they're saying.

"It's been through the same size clinical trials as is desirable for vaccinces."

She said more than a billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered globally to date.