The site has received correspondence which raises pertinent questions

Feedback we have received about being anonymous.

Hi, I applaud your NZDSOS initiative.  As —– professionals/—– my wife and I both fully and strongly agree with what you stand for.  I am curious as to why you feel the need to have public listing of signatures on your website?   We have considered the consequences of having our name on that public listing and decided not to sign at this stage. I urge you to consider a change to this policy and instead giving freedom of choice as to whether signatures are listed or not so that a large number of people can sign without fear of what the consequences may be.  There is also a question of trust about who is really collecting this information as it’s not apparent from this website: the home page has no names or faces or importantly a  video introduction from real people who are known in this space to give it credibility.

and …

Hi Team, I really appreciate the important work you are trying to do. I wanted to reach out though to query why the only way to sign this declaration is to agree to your full name being published on a public website? Many peoples line or work or employment would make them uncomfortable with this.  Why can’t people sign the petition without names being publicly published and available for all sorts of scrutiny and bias? I know you have 50 doctors involved with this , I think if publishing names was not mandatory you would have a whole lot more – and that would create a really strong foundation to build upon. For many who work in public settings this is a big risk it if any news outlets find this website and peoples livelihood is affected by the scrutiny or blacklisting. Personally I’ve signed many petitions before and never had to have my name and credentials thrown out on display . I think this alone will make it far harder to get many people to sign this which is unfortunate. I thought I would write to give you this side of it as it is such an important cause and it would be a shame for it not to get the support it deserves.

We completely understand and acknowledge that there may be a number of people who are in support but unable to sign at this stage.

In reply

This is a brand new site, things are happening very fast, requiring large amounts of work outside of our day jobs. Our members are currently compiling further fully referenced letters to the authorities which is taking a lot of resource. We may get bios and pics up soon. For the doctors and dentists out there, you may well recognise some of your colleagues amongst the signatories.

The state knows who we all are anyway.  Most of us came together all at once with a shared determination to alert the officials and the public of the possible adverse effects and unknowns of the rollout, knowing the career jeopardy we face on speaking out.  We believe we have a stronger message if we do not remain anonymous.  We are standing up for our patients and the public alike.

Our letters and statements need to be fearless and confident.

The international groups that thousands of doctors and lay persons have signed (listed on the front page), all provide the names of the signatories.

On the technical side, we are all facing well-resourced authorities who presently feel their best interests are served by using tax payer funds to close down unapproved debate i.e. the signatories are all facing the same pressures.

It is technically tricky (i.e. complex and expensive) to have an automated signatory list with both opt-in and opt-out and if despite our best efforts something goes wrong (and it is the internet), we don’t want to be personally responsible for a data privacy breach and any resulting outcomes.  We are working on it though.

We are mindful of the trust extended to the site by signatories and the corresponding responsibility.

It’s all a bit cloak and dagger and feels weird for New Zealanders, but the days when Greenwald worked for the Guardian are long gone. What would David Lange think about where NZ has got to within a generation? There’s a whiff of uranium.

Thanks for the questions, which will be further discussed by the sponsors.

January 2022 Update

Currently the website does not list the names of the signatories.  However these are securely held as subscribers. In the future signatories may be made public except where requested otherwise on the Declaration page.