Another Day I Will Never Forget

Principal X

Part Two

In the midst of navigating the profound heartbreak that accompanied the loss of my vocation, the cherished bonds within my school community, and the sense of purpose that once fuelled my days, another layer of heartbreak consumed my journey. I found myself confronted by the very thing I had feared – supporting a beloved family member with a vaccine injury. 

Coerced individuals and those who experienced adverse effects from the vaccine are also people I deeply empathise with. I admit my initial hesitation toward this ‘acclaimed panacea’ stemmed from my unique medical history, including seven life-threatening episodes of anaphylaxis to unidentified triggers. In light of this, the uncertainty surrounding potential risks weighed heavily on my mind. One benefit was my ability to demonstrate compassion toward my hesitant staff. As a school principal, I was sent regular bulletins from the Ministry of Education, which stipulated (among other things) the need to strongly encourage vaccination.

Not being a medical professional, I viewed this as out of my scope of responsibility. Who was I to encourage anyone to get vaccinated? Playing heavily on my mind was the guilt I would feel if someone did have a bad reaction after being ‘encouraged’ by me, to make such a personal decision. Bodily autonomy enables people to make choices based on their personal health, beliefs, and values and no one has the right to override that. I remain proud that I pressured no one, and in fact offered my vaccine-hesitant staff lifelines to ensure the protection of their incomes, roles, and positions in my school (sick leave, and extended leave without pay). 

The strong emotions evoked by the intense pressure to take a medical procedure, one that ought to have forever remained a matter of personal agency, is something that still disturbs me to the core. The removal of the exemption clause from the Public Health Order stands as the very aspect for which I anticipated mass resistance, yet the reverberation from the resounding hush of our nation still stings. 

My heart goes out to the countless individuals who were dealing with pre-existing health conditions, pressured to conform and risk their health on the one hand, yet on the other standing to lose future income, housing, stability, and security – everything they had spent their entire lives building. No one should be placed in this position, and yet thousands of New Zealanders were! There are valuable insights for us all in recognising this dilemma. History has shown us the consequences of widespread compliance, and there is much to learn from it. 

Owing to my anaphylactic medical condition, my concern escalated significantly regarding the potential implications of harm from the vaccine, for my own children. This unease was compounded by the comprehensive analysis of safety data and vaccine efficacy ratings derived from vaccine distribution in both the US and the UK. I had been reading these evaluations with interest, given New Zealand’s strategic position post-rollout which provided invaluable insights. In parallel with these considerations, our familial medical history heightened my conviction that the risk of vaccine-associated injury carried a weightier significance than the prospect of contracting COVID-19 or experiencing severe illness due to it. However, like many others, my children found themselves enmeshed in the complex decision-making process where they had to carefully balance the implications of vaccination against hereditary risks, while also considering the potential loss of income and educational pursuits due to non-compliance.

I was acutely aware of the prevailing narrative emphasising the imperative message to ‘shield the elderly and protect the community’ but held a differing perspective on the authenticity of these messages, finding them to be misaligned with the complexities of individual health and the broader context.  

Initially diagnosed as severe impetigo, the situation swiftly deteriorated, culminating in painful blisters that ‘felt like burns’ and engulfed his body from head to toe.  The racing heartbeat set off further alarm bells, (I had read of the high numbers of young males especially contracting myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination) coupled with the sombre diagnosis of an inflammatory bowel condition.  Not even twenty years old with no hereditary history for any of these conditions turned my hesitancy and anxiety into anger and deep-set emotion. It is during these trying moments that the bonds of family and resilience of the human spirit find themselves tested beyond limits, revealing our capacity for empathy, pain, anger, and grief.  

Hospitalised for sixteen days with deteriorating health and escalating symptoms, he was put under a team of ten medical professionals.  Based on my own pre-existing autoimmune condition I did expect these professionals to consider a possible link to vaccine harm.  While acknowledgement of an ‘induced toxicity’ was given, denial of any connection with the vaccine was prominent among all those I questioned and challenged.  

I became more forceful in my desire for answers and a diagnosis as the days loomed and his condition worsened. I knew my son had not taken drugs (he was drug tested regularly at his work as part of health and safety monitoring procedures for operating machinery) so I continued to question the doctors, pushing them for additional evidence to their claims of ‘no correlation’.  

Had outbreaks like this ever occurred in someone his age from any previous drugs administered or induced in New Zealand – illicit or prescribed? Silence. I am not a doctor. I don’t claim to have knowledge of unexplainable and new (previously unseen) medical occurrences. However, like any parent, I needed answers. What is this? What caused it?  Is it curable?  Is it contagious? Is it a new disease to which my other family members may be susceptible? More silence. The silence simply added to my suspicions, escalated my doubt, and heightened my mistrust. I felt intense anger regarding the instant and continual denial of ‘the thing’ that to me seemed the most obvious.

Still receiving no answers, and while my son remained in the hospital, I shared photos of his outbreak with a close friend who had contacts with health professionals in the United States. Within twenty-four hours we received notification that ‘this exact outbreak’ called bullous pemphigoid, was being seen a lot in young people in America following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.  

I am fully aware that photographic images are not ‘scientific or medical evidence’ in isolation, but at this point in time, I still had nothing from the team of medical experts my son was under. A week after I had received confirmation of bullous pemphigoid from the US doctors, the NZ team of doctors also diagnosed bullous pemphigoid, but to this day there has been no explanation from the New Zealand team regarding how he contracted this condition.  My question is, “If it wasn’t the vaccine what was it?” They admitted ‘induced toxicity’ but never identified the cause.  

There are now several reports available that state bullous pemphigoid – an autoimmune reaction occurs when antibodies disrupt the connection between the dermis and epidermis causing blisters to develop – this is frequently triggered by drugs and has been directly linked to the Pfizer vaccine. It is however, not limited to COVID vaccines, and is inherent in mRNA technology so can be expected in future mRNA vaccines.

My son’s outbreak has diminished but scars are still evident. He remains under medical care for his bowel condition, but I have been unable to get him into a cardiologist, due to a long waiting list. I don’t hold the same level of anger toward the medical experts now, as they are doing their utmost to help him, but I continue to push for transparency and honesty. The New Zealand public has the same right to the facts as those in the US.

I applaud the support of the NZDSOS for their work in bringing the truth to light in our country.