Pauline Hanna Coronial Inquest: Will All the Stones Be Unturned?

Introduction

The coronial inquest into the death of Pauline Hanna has been in progress this month (August 2026).  In commenting on this case, we are relying on public reporting in the mainstream media which we have come to appreciate cannot be trusted.  However, questions remain that should be asked.  Our question is:

“Has covid vaccination been thoughtfully considered and properly excluded as a cause or contributor to the death of Pauline Hanna?

Mainstream media appears fixated on two possibilities (murder or suicide) but we say no stone should be left unturned, particularly when a criminal trial was unable to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that she was murdered.

“The jury in the trial of retired eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne has asked the court for guidance saying some don’t believe there’s enough proof he caused his wife’s death, while most say there isn’t enough proof of her suicide.”

Could she have experienced a medical event related to the vaccination she had just received, less than 24 hours prior to her death?  Why or why not?  Has anyone turned their mind to this?

The case has been curious/unusual from the start with a lot of public and media interest and reporting that raises more questions than it answers. 

Covid Vaccination

Pauline was responsible for overseeing the covid vaccination response at Counties Manukau District Health Board.

When her death was initially reported in April 2021, the Herald briefly had a sentence that stated:

“A source told the Herald Hanna was still sending work emails at 10pm on Sunday and that she had had her second Covid-19 vaccine earlier that day.”

A few hours later keen observers noted that the second part of this sentence had been removed never to reappear.  Why would the Herald do that? Clearly not to inform the public of all known facts; and not to increase truth and transparency.

As far as we are aware nothing further was mentioned or could be found about this covid vaccination until over three years later when it was reported on 31 July 2024 during the criminal trial that “he [Polkinghorne] and his wife, a health administrator who was heavily involved in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, had received their vaccinations the day earlier.”

Then on 7 August 2024 it was reported that the nurse who vaccinated her was providing evidence.  Pelenaise Latu, a registered nurse, worked for Counties Manukau DHB in April 2021. She administered the second covid vaccine to Pauline at the Highbrook vaccination centre around lunchtime on 4 April 2021.  Latu asked her if she was well enough for her second dose. Pauline said she was and received her second vaccine.  Latu spent about 3 minutes with Pauline as she was administering 300-500 vaccines a day. [Note there are only 480 minutes in an 8-hour day, including all breaks.]

Pharmacovigilance

Our interest in this case is to see that pharmacovigilance is done and can be seen to be done.

In April 2021 the Pfizer covid vaccine had only provisional approval under s 23 of the Medicines Act.  There were no requirements for safety or efficacy or quality to be assured under provisional approval.  It was not a usual ‘vaccine’ with known and understood adverse events.  It was unprecedented genetic technology in an injection with minimal understanding of potential adverse events.  The clinical trials had produced only 2 months of safety data.  It has since come to light that there were more cardiac and sudden deaths in the vaccinated group than the placebo group during the trial, and that 184 deaths and 3,688 serious adverse events were reported to Medsafe by the time it discontinued public-facing safety reports in December 2022. Note the number of serious adverse events was updated to 20,599 a year later.

Following provisional approval, the public was reassured that robust safety monitoring was being undertaken.  If that was the case, Pauline’s death (a healthy person dying within 24 hours of the vaccine very early in the rollout) should have been reported to CARM and thoroughly assessed by the Independent Safey Monitoring Board (ISMB).  However, we have seen no evidence to suggest this has been done. In fact, barely 2% of all serious side effects were examined by ISMB before it too was disbanded in December 2022. 

We have written on the tragic death of the 17 year-old daughter of a prominent Maori family where the coroner went on television impossibly quickly in mid 2021 to exclude the vaccine as causal without due pharmacovigilance processes being done. 

Medsafe’s first mention of any report of death in relation to covid vaccination is on 9 June 2021 in its 10th Safety Report covering until 8 May 2021 which noted:

“Sadly, we are also reporting the deaths of two elderly individuals this week. Both deaths are considered by CARM, Medsafe and medical staff involved to be unrelated to the administration of Comirnaty but were reported through an abundance of caution.” 

Knowing how long coronial and other investigations take, we find this to be a very rapid rejection of any connection.  We also think Pauline would not be classified as ‘elderly’.

Pathologists and Pathology

The pathologist who did the post mortem examination and provided evidence for the Crown was Dr Kilak Kesha.  Christchurch pathologist Dr Martin Sage provided a second opinion for the Crown. The defence sought the opinions of pathologists Dr Stephen Cordner from Australia and Dr Chrisopher Milroy of Canada. The evidence of all of them is confusing.  We are not sure if that was a reflection of the media reporting or the opinions of the pathologists themselves, and we don’t know whether it was any clearer for those present in the courtroom.  We have not been able to read their formal reports.  We don’t know if the additional three pathologists reviewed the histology slides or just reviewed photographs and reports.

The focus of the pathologists appears to have been on whether there was evidence of hanging, ligature strangulation or manual strangulation, or evidence of a struggle.

There seems to be agreement that Pauline had minor injuries but that there were no signs of a significant struggle.  There may have been evidence of neck compression but a number of the expected features to confirm suicide or strangulation were not present.

While there was much detailed, contradictory and inconclusive commentary about possible hanging versus strangulation we have not seen any commentary on any other aspects of the pathology i.e. how much attention was paid to Pauline’s heart, brain, lungs, blood vessels and other organs.

In April 2021 the adverse effects caused by mRNA and lipid nanoparticles were not known. Although myocarditis was being mentioned internationally, it was not being spoken about to medical practitioners in NZ.  Pathologists in NZ would not have known what to look for.

Our experience is that even now, five years after the vaccines were introduced into the population, pathologists are still not considering/looking for/commenting on the widespread damage that the injections can cause. We have profiled many such cases.

We note that Philip Polkinghorne stated at one stage he thought Pauline had encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).  This potentially can and has indeed occurred post vaccination via an autoimmune mechanism.  It was on the FDA list of potential adverse effects in 2020; cases have been reported to CARM in NZ and we have written about one such case in a young woman. Onset within 24 hours could possibly occur following a second vaccination but would be less likely following the first vaccination.

Julia Lorimer attended a creative writing course with Polkinghorne in 2025 without initially realising who he was.  According to the Herald, “Lorimer claims Polkinghorne told her he believed Hanna might have died from the Covid-19 vaccination…. He told me there is a test now that might prove this. He told me Pauline’s brain is stored, and he wants it tested.”

Role of the Coroner

In addition to pharmacovigilance we want to be reassured that the coronial service is up to scratch as other deaths in recent years lead us to be suspicious of deliberate omissions in coroner reports.  The following articles describe deaths we believe should have the role of covid vaccination considered and documented.

• Sudden death in young New Zealanders
• Death from dissected blood vessels
• Water related deaths

In this case of a young man in his 20s we are led to believe he had a covid booster with symptomatic side effects within the 24 hours prior to his death but the vaccination is not even mentioned by the coroner.

Coroners are independent judicial officers but that does not fill us with confidence having witnessed the actions (and inactions) of the judiciary during the covid years. 

Our Correspondence with Coroner Tetitaha

We have attempted to communicate with Coroner Tetitaha to voice our concerns over many months.  We have asked her to confirm she will consider and make a finding on the covid vaccination Pauline received.  Although her office has occasionally relayed platitudes, she has not once responded to us.  We find her lack of communication disrespectful, unprofessional and concerning and wonder why she is behaving in this manner.

What If?

What would have happened to the covid vaccine rollout in NZ if one of the people in charge of the rollout had died due to her second vaccination in April 2021? ​​​​​​​

There were and are still supranational forces pushing this genetic injection on populations of the world.  To what lengths are they prepared to go?

Conclusion

We don’t know what or who caused the death of Pauline Hanna.  However, she received a provisionally consented, experimental (i.e. still in a clinical trial in April 2021) medical procedure within the 24 hours prior to her death.  That surely deserves due consideration in a coronial inquest, even if just to exclude it, with the process being on full display. 

We know the government – and the courts – have refused to release the Pfizer contract to New Zealanders, but other countries have disclosed that their contracts contain agreements to suppress serious side effects. Can it really be that coroners and courts owe a greater duty to a multinational corporate than to the loved ones of people who have potentially died from its product? That’s 830 years of coronal tradition down the toilet over a single injection platform. Coroner Tetitaha, do the right thing.