Let Me Tell You a Story

How Has COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Affected New Zealanders?

The government narrative around complete vaccine safety and high effectiveness has misled a large part of the public. This has led to resentment against unvaccinated individuals. It has divided families. It has led to scepticism about and rejection of the vaccine injured.

They have been accused of fakery, dismissed by GPs as anxious types, and left without adequate or timely treatment. Importantly, serious injuries such as heart attacks and stroke have been denied compensation by the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) following Medsafe or MoH advice that such injuries cannot be related to vaccination, even though the victims were previously young, fit, and healthy. This has left many families without a breadwinner facing ruin and poverty.

Medsafe’s advice to reject some injury claims runs in the face of accepted medical causality methods. I, with colleagues, have recently completed a definitive scientific paper on this topic. Using the powerful methods of time series analysis, we were able to demonstrate a causal relationship between weekly vaccination totals in NZ during 2021 and all cause mortality in the 60+ age cohort. 434 excess deaths proximate to vaccination over the eight-month period of the study were directly attributable to vaccination. A sobering figure considering the deaths from Covid-19 during this period was just 5.

Ours is a study of fatalities, the smallest category of adverse effects. Long term effects of many non-fatal categories of adverse events could be very serious indeed. The sub-clinical effects of mRNA vaccination have not yet been studied because the vaccines have only had very short trials.

How and Why Has Jacinda Ardern’s Government COVID Policy Evolved?

The most concerning aspect of government policy has been a lack of ability to justify it to the public using rational arguments. From the start, the narrative has been one of fear. This has been stoked by one-sided media reporting both here and to a lesser extent in some overseas publications. Covid-19 is a potentially serious illness, but it is definitely not as serious as first feared.

The early modelling of potential NZ deaths proved to be completely off target and hugely exaggerated. Serious cases of Covid-19 mostly affect those that are already ill. Overwhelmingly, comorbidities affect the severity of the disease progression. These include (in no particular order) uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, diabetes, alcohol use, weakened immune system, certain medications (of which there are many), excessive fatigue, shift work, heart conditions, liver and kidney conditions, asthma, smoking, gender, ethnicity, advanced age, poverty and crowded living conditions, cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia, pregnancy, dementia, stress, and substance abuse.

2020 would have been a great year for the government to announce preventive measures to encourage better health habits. A few of the above causes of Covid severity are under the control of the individual. If it affects you, give up smoking, cut down on alcohol use, increase exercise, rest more, drink more fluids, and eat a more balanced diet including more whole grains, less ultra-processed food, and five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day. Those following a plant-based diet for example have a 73% lower chance of becoming seriously ill with covid—a higher reduction than that afforded by vaccination.

Vitamin D deficiency is also known to be a confounding factor. The government too can and should help you. They can abolish GST on fresh fruit and vegetables, introduce a tax on excess sugar and artificial trans fats, and offer educational programmes such as those pioneered by Jamie Oliver in schools. Their lack of action in this direction is indicative of the government’s paradigm of health—the magic bullet approach.

The government could be forgiven for worshipping exclusively at the altar of vaccination. Vaccination has played a pivotal role in public health measures for more than two hundred years. BUT, and it is a big but, recent history should have made them cautious. No need to put all their eggs in one basket. Repeated attempts to control illnesses similar to Covid such as influenza through vaccination have been singularly ineffective. Moreover, mRNA vaccination was a new technology. Probably the government had just signed a contract stating that the long term effects and efficacy were unknown. The contract certainly specified that the supplier had no liability.

Even more to the point, over the last fifty years, evidence has been steadily accumulating that the most influential determinants of robust health are to be found in healthy eating, exercise, and avoidance of pollution. Magic bullets do not always stack up well in the health equation. Medical/pharmaceutical misadventure is the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease. Yet our government policy is firmly against natural health.

Most people who are vaccine-hesitant are people who are already doing their utmost to maintain their health. They have not been a burden on the health services. For example, studies of insurance statistics and health records show that people who practice meditation regularly for a few minutes morning and evening need 50% less utilisation of health care and show reductions in all categories of illness. Similar large effects in some illness categories are there for other natural health care approaches.

Yet the government has sought to marginalise these people and deprive them of their so-far successful natural philosophy, forcing vaccination by depriving them of livelihood and freedoms. Including even for example, hiring extra employees to prevent the unvaccinated walking in DOC parks, forgetting for the moment that open spaces are the safest of environments as far as transmission goes.

It is apparent the government’s policy is based on punishment. Even people who have already had Covid and thereby have an immunity many times greater than vaccination and more long-lasting are required to vaccinate and expose themselves to more health risks.

To be continued…