New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out With Science
nzdsos.com

Monkey Pox is coming and the vaccine is too…

Work continues between ourselves and Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand and Pharmac on securing a supply of Imvanex vaccine. That’s a vaccine that’s suitable for both smallpox and monkeypox and is the vaccine that is used mostly in the UK and US.  We’re still finalising that supply, but it’s important to note that even if we had a vaccine, the mainstay of our response will be based on measures that we already have in place including testing, isolation, and contact tracing.

Two issues here with this slightly sinister announcement:

Firstly, when you search the Medsafe and New Zealand Formulary websites for monkeypox, Imvanex or Jynneos, there are no results. On the Ministry of Health website there are only results for monkeypox but nothing about vaccines to prevent it. On the Pharmac website (updated on 5 August), it states there is no vaccine for monkeypox, however, some smallpox vaccines can protect against monkeypox.  Apparently, Te Whatu Ora’s National Immunisation Programme will be responsible for developing an implementation plan when the vaccine arrives.

So, we have MoH ‘securing a supply’ of another medicine that has limited clinical data when it appears that no company has even made an application for its use in NZ at this time, let alone had it approved for use. We also note the Medicines Act was recently amended (June 2022) to allow the Director General of Health to authorise the off-label administration of Covid-19 vaccines. Are we going to see the same thing for a smallpox vaccine that may prevent monkeypox – medicine by government decree, [with] no need for doctors or personalised risk-benefit assessment?

Secondly, the mainstay of the response to monkeypox is going to be those soul-destroying, economy-crashing measures conveniently kept in the back pocket ready to whip out at a moment’s notice – testing, isolation and contact tracing.

Monkeypox is a self-limiting illness that is not particularly contagious and even though the WHO has taken the step of labelling it a “public health emergency of international concern”, it does not require such draconian control measures. That label is for their benefit, not ours.

This is another attempt to get us all into a digital control grid and remove your freedom. Do your research, and talk to everyone you come into contact with. Will you be taking another experimental shot, signing up for digital surveillance and control via testing, contact tracing, experimental vaccines and passports??

Dr Andrew Old (Public Health Agency Deputy Director-General) 
Press Briefing – 27 Jul 2022. 

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