Letters Call for Action on Vaccine Safety as New Zealand Faces Its Own Transparency Crisis

Two major international open letters are calling for independent inquiries into covid-19 vaccine safety, while in New Zealand, questions swirl about what was known about myocarditis risks for young people and when.

A group of 160 doctors, scientists, health professionals, and public figures has written to recently appointed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham requesting an independent examination of outstanding questions about covid-19 vaccine safety. The letter, primarily drafted by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, makes a clear and simple request:

“We are not asking you to accept our conclusions. We are asking you to ensure that the evidence is examined.”

The signatories argue that legitimate, unresolved questions remain about adverse events following covid-19 vaccination, including:

The letter draws parallels to past UK scandals, including Hillsborough, the infected blood scandal, and the Post Office scandal, where people raising concerns were dismissed for years before institutions were eventually forced to confront what had happened. 

The signatories express disappointment that the UK Covid-19 Inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett failed to examine the full body of evidence they submitted concerning vaccine safety and efficacy. The Inquiry chose not to publish witness statements from dissenting groups, deeming them not “sufficiently relevant”.

Three signatories have also travelled to Washington to testify before a United States Senate subcommittee examining concerns surrounding covid-19 vaccination and scientific research into potential harms. The letter also notes that the UK’s own All-Party Parliamentary Group on pandemic response concluded that the MHRA is failing to flag serious harms from the covid-19 vaccine.

Signatories include:

• Dr Aseem Malhotra, cardiologist
• Dr Rosamond Jones, retired Consultant Paediatrician
• Dr Clare Craig, diagnostic pathologist
• Professor Angus Dalgleish, Emeritus Professor of Oncology
• Woody Harrelson, actor
• Rob Schneider, actor and film maker
• Gurinder Chadha OBE, film director

Full letter and list of signatories: https://www.hartgroup.org/a-second-letter-to-our-fifth-prime-minister/

Canadian scientists and clinicians have written a separate open letter to Canadian politicians and health officials calling for an immediate halt to the use of covid-19 mRNA vaccines in Canada. The letter, supported by the Canadian Citizens Care Alliance and RéInfo Québec, states that emerging safety and quality data demonstrates a shift in the balance of harms versus benefits.

The specific concerns raised include:

The initiative has attracted thousands of signatures and is supported by dozens of professors, researchers, and physicians across Canada. The letter has been sent to federal and provincial representatives and public health officials.

Key signatories include:

• Steven Pelech, PhD, Professor of Medicine, University of British Columbia
• Byram W. Bridle, PhD, Associate Professor of Immunology and Virology, University of Guelph
• Patrick Provost, PhD, Expert in RNA and lipid nanoparticles, Université Laval
• Claudia Chaufan, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Policy, York University

Full letter and list of signatories: https://www.call2halt19.ca/

These international calls for honesty mirror disturbing facts in New Zealand about what was known and when, especially regarding myocarditis risks for young people receiving the covid-19 vaccine. Yes, there are far more serious side effects than myocarditis alone, but NZDSOS has long presented evidence that heart inflammation is far more common than admitted, and a healthy heart is obviously central to the health of everything else. 

Philip Crump, NZDSOS and some mainstream outlets have chronicled extensively that in December 2021, the Covid-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CV TAG) advised that a two-dose schedule for the Pfizer vaccine “may add an unnecessary risk of myocarditis” for children under 18, recommending a change to one dose for the 12-17 age group.

This advice was not provided to ministers at the time. The Royal Commission described this failure as “significant.” Yet a Cabinet paper in then Minister Chris Hipkins’ name shows he was aware by March 2022, by which point 92% of the 350,000-400,000 young people in that age group had already received two doses. That meant about 30,000 were yet to have a second dose when Hipkins became aware of the risk. But in yet more hypocritical and frankly bizarre comments from then health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall, she says these stats – produced under the Official Information Act – are “fake news”. 

Official papers suggest Hipkins chaired a Vaccine Ministers meeting on 13 August 2021, and shortly thereafter the CV TAG minutes note that references to myocarditis risk had been removed from official communications. Records from the 13 August meeting have not been identified by the Ministry of Health, and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet says meeting minutes do not exist, despite holding related briefing material which it has refused to release.

Hipkins has defended his actions, telling the Herald that sharing medical advice around vaccinations was not his area: “In terms of my conscience, I never communicated medical advice around vaccination.” He said he did not recall the Cabinet paper and that any suggestions of a cover-up were “just utterly wrong,” adding that by March 2022 the information was “not sort of material information” because most employers were mandating two shots.

Dr Andrew Old, deputy Director-General of Health, had a medical licence and so WAS able, and supposed, to communicate medical advice. He acknowledged a “significant failing,” accepting there had been a delay in providing that information to ministers and a failure to clearly communicate it to the public “in a timely way”.

Expert, not Expert

These admissions echo a theme NZDSOS has long championed – that officials pushed “safe and effective” whilst having a bob each way and admitting data gaps and not doing their homework. 

Another example is vaccinologist Dr Petousis-Harris, a government advisor and co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network, who has herself acknowledged critical failures. In November 2023, she admitted at an IMAC conference that New Zealand was “over a year too late” with background safety rate data, that association studies were “delayed” and “not transparent,” and that active surveillance introduced during COVID “had limited use.” 

Back in June 2021, the CV TAG she sat on acknowledged “limited data available to date” on myocarditis in younger age groups and advised delaying until more safety data was available – advice that was not followed. In October 2022, she admitted on RNZ (interview now unavailable) that expectations for bivalent boosters “exceed the evidence” and that she saw “no evidence” a fourth dose would benefit her personally. Then she told Sean Plunket on The Platform that deficient advice (i.e. her own!) from the MoH left her struggling to provide correct advice around covid jabs for her teenage sons. Even her own 2020 article warned that deploying a vaccine without a functioning safety monitoring system was “reckless and irresponsible” – a warning that appears prophetic in hindsight.

Back in the current day, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has called the situation “a disgrace to a modern-day democracy” and demanded a select committee inquiry into covid-19 vaccine injuries, telling Parliament that hundreds of thousands of young people could have been impacted as a consequence of the double dose, and can look forward to future health problems. His words are very true. 

Conclusion: How Long Can They Keep Silent?

Two international open letters are demanding governments take vaccine safety concerns seriously and commission independent examinations of the evidence. In New Zealand, the question is no longer whether myocarditis is a genuine adverse event associated with mRNA vaccines. It is, and even ACC agrees.

The question is whether governments and health agencies have been candid about the scale and nature of the risk, particularly for young people. The mounting disclosures about withheld advice, missing records, and removed communications raise profound questions about transparency, informed consent, and the duty of governments to be honest with their citizens.

As the Hart Group letter states:

“Public confidence in vaccination and medicine cannot be restored by insisting that people trust institutions. Institutions have to demonstrate that they are worthy of trust. That means publishing evidence, acknowledging uncertainty, investigating possible harms and being willing to change course when evidence demands it.”

Meantime, NZ hospitals seem to be swamped with people whose immune systems no longer cope with winter infections, and a major review collates multiple lines of evidence showing the cancer epidemic is real, and somehow related to the covid response. 

Leadership requires honesty and without it, trust collapses. But, being honest ourselves, we wonder if that horse has bolted.