In brief
- A smaller dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine is approved for high risk infants 6 months or older.
- Approval is based on a single small US clinical trial and on Pfizer providing safety reports.
- A Government study shows vaccinated Kiwis suffered more kidney and heart injuries than the unvaccinated.
Limited approval with conditions
Medsafe and the Ministry of Health have authorised a smaller dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old deemed to have a high-risk condition, including heart disease.
The vaccine has not had the safety checks required for normal approval, and there is no data on long-term safety risks. Vaccine trials usually take 5-10 years, and reports of injuries from COVID vaccines in New Zealand and around the world are many times higher than previous vaccines.
It is approved on the basis of Pfizer providing regular safety reports, but this looks like a case of the fox guarding the hen-house. In this case the fox has a long criminal history of international bribery, fraud and dangerous trials and treatments, resulting in billions of dollars in fines and settlements. Pfizer refuses to sell to countries where it may be held liable for damages resulting from its products (like most, NZ indemnified Pfizer at the start of 2021).
Questionable effectiveness
As yet no consumer information sheet or risk management plan has been published in NZ. These have been published in the US, which say their Emergency Use Authorization was based on one small clinical trial of less than 2,000 infants. It says “The vaccine has been shown to help prevent COVID-19. The duration of protection against COVID-19 is currently unknown.” How much help it provides isn’t stated. It is undisputed that protection for adults is short-lived and many are arguing the more vaccine doses people receive the more likely they are to be reinfected with COVID.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stopped recommending general vaccination of children and adolescents at the end of 2022 due to their low risk of COVID, and is currently meeting to decide whether to end its declaration of a global health emergency. Denmark stopped general vaccination of people under 50 years of age in September 2022, and the UK recently announced they would do the same.
Questionable safety
The WHO’s data sheet for children aged 5 to 11 says there is a less than one in a thousand chance of the vaccine causing Bell’s palsy (facial paralysis) and under one in ten thousand chance of serious heart damage. Those are troubling numbers unless there is serious risk, on the facts of the individual situation, that is otherwise being substantially mitigated.
A Government-sponsored study of New Zealand’s health records, published 20 January 2023, found those who took the Pfizer COVID vaccine suffered significantly higher rates of heart damage (especially among younger people) and kidney injury, than unvaccinated people.
The Global Covid Summit, an international group representing over 17,000 doctors and scientists critical of government interference in the doctor-patient relationship, published a letter for parents to give their doctors regarding their concern of large numbers of vaccine-injured patients, especially with heart damage.
Update 2 February 2023
The Ministry of Health pre-print study has been removed from The Lancet, but the abstract is still available on The Wayback Machine. The link in the article is now to a copy we are hosting ourselves.
Update 14 February 2023
The study is back up… we will keep our copy available just in case.
Update 5 October 2023
The study was removed again, judging by the Wayback Machine sometime between 10th June and 9th July.
