A big promise from the Ministry, while parents await a High Court decision

Medsafe’s approval of the vaccine rollout for kids is challenged in the High Court

Jul 03, 2022

Pushing the COVID-19 vaccine for young children, the Ministry of Health promises to ‘protect them for life’.

The ’Hood’s fight against the NZ government rolling out the Pfizer vaccine to 5 - 11 year-olds concluded with a two day High Court judicial review hearing last week (June 27 and 28).

The case was heard by Judge David Ian Gendall. A decision is not expected for a few weeks, due to the amount of evidence presented..

The ‘Hood NZ is a volunteer and charity organisation comprising parents, doctors, nurses, academics, scientists, lawyers and concerned others. Acting on behalf of eight applicants, all concerned parents, it facilitated the legal action, challenging the decision by Medsafe to approve the Pfizer vaccine for children and the government’s decision to roll it out.

In the meantime, the government is pressing ahead with the rollout.

An advertisement in an Auckland community newspaper, urges whānua to book their injection: “Protect them for life. Immunise. COVID-19 vaccinations are available for tamariki aged 5-11.”

On its website, the Ministry of Health says the vaccination provides a web of protection for children, their whānau, their mates, and their school. It claims that serious side effects are ‘very very rare’. It assures that it will respond to any safety issues right away and will inform New Zealanders about any risks that arise in New Zealand.

The website directs parents to a study that found the vaccines are ‘safe, immunogenic and efficacious’ for children 5 - 11 years of age.

The study, supported by BioNTech and Pfizer, was not powered to detect rare side effects in 5 - 11year-olds and lacked long-term follow-up to assess the duration of immune responses, efficacy, and safety: “However, the safety of BNT162b2 observed in the study combined with widespread use of BNT162b2 in older populations should provide reassurance.”

The study will continue for two years.

Interviewed by Counterspin Media after the High Court hearing last week, Sereca Friend from The 'Hood said it had taken months and months of hard slog to present the case but it was definitely worth it.

“I think that whatever goes on record afterwards is going to be invaluable. Nothing about this was worthless, regardless of what happens. It was absolutely necessary. I think there's going to be a lot of checking of processes and things that will happen after this point. So any future rollouts that are considered, I think this is going to have a massive impact on that.”

Ms Friend says multiple arguments were used and thousands of pages of evidence presented.

“It is our responsibility, when we know something, we make that publicly known, and we'll get as much flack as you like for it. But the thing is that we are doing it for everybody, including the people who don't believe that they need this extra information. Our argument is that the risk of this product is far greater than the benefit and we find ourselves in a situation where the decision making process was really questionable.”

Speaking to the NZ News Alliance, Ms Friend said the responsibility was greatest when it came to deciding for children.

“And I believe that if there should be any question or evidence lacking, then you should use the role of precaution. The precautionary principle is critical when it comes to children.”

The government claimed it was an emergency but there was no rush to push this through - there is no evidence that it was a case of emergency for children.”

The ‘Hood is not alone in taking legal action.

The risk-benefit analysis of Pfizer's emergency use application to inject children 5 - 11 with its mRNA product is being questioned here and overseas.

In June NZ Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS) sent an open letter to Medsafe manager Chris James, saying that Medsafe should never have allowed approval for this age group, based on poor evidence provided by Pfizer. The letter called for a halt to the rollout and an investigation. NZDSOS calls for a period to pause and reassess.

An international body Doctors for COVID Ethics has written to the European Medicines Agency, urgently warning of short term and long term dangers from COVID-19 vaccines. They point to ‘brazen disregard for all routine safety assessments’.

The World Council for Health, which represents 70 bodies worldwide, has called for a global recall of all COVID-19 vaccines

But health officials say the benefits continue to outweigh the risks. And in the USA, the CDC has recommended COVID-19 vaccines for infants.

Ms Friend said she was disappointed that mainstream media had been absent at the High Court last week. Some had reported on the preliminary hearing in January but had taken no interest in last week’s substantive hearing: “Not one media outlet has asked us anything. We haven't been asked to comment. We’ve sent through media releases. I find it really interesting that they're not at all interested.”