PFIZER KIDS ROLL-OUT JUDICIAL REVIEW: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COURT CASE

Legal action has been launched by a group of concerned parents calling for an urgent review of Medsafe’s decision to roll out the Pzifer vaccine to 5 to 11 year olds.

Following lodgement at Wellington’s High Court last week of an application for a Judicial Review, Justice Rebecca Ellis held the first court conference on Monday and granted anonymity to the applicants and their families.

The applicant families stated they wish to protect themselves and their children from further bullying that has been apparent in school, as well as socially, due to their decision not to vaccinate.

The application for a preliminary order to immediately halt the rollout to children aged 5 to 11 was not granted. However a substantive hearing for orders halting the rollout is scheduled to proceed next Thursday 27 January before Justice Ellis.

Vaccine manufacturer Pzifer will be served with the proceedings and will be given an opportunity to be heard in court.

The legal action has been brought by the group of parents who have questions for the government that they feel have not been properly answered.

Some have experienced reactions to the Pfizer vaccine themselves, have children at risk, or are simply concerned about the new technology used. They draw attention to Pfizer’s very small trials for this age group which the New Zealand Government appears to have relied in provisionally approving this vaccine, as well as the lack of robust safety information generally.

Further questions arise given the recommendations currently on the WHO website that state:

“There are currently no efficacy or safety data for children below the age of 12 years. Until such data are available, individuals below 12 years of age should not be routinely vaccinated.”

An organisation called The ‘Hood is supporting the applicants by facilitating the case. Made up of a wider group of 1500 concerned parents, doctors, nurses, academics, scientists, lawyers and others, The ‘Hood said in a media statement that it shares a common goal: to make the best decision for their children and young people.

“Like the applicants calling for a Judicial Review, we want the government to answer the many questions we’ve also been raising.

“The ‘Hood has filed numerous OIA requests and sent letters sent to the Children’s Commissioner, Government Ministers and agencies, requesting clarification of the specific criteria and data that Medsafe used to approve this latest rollout of the Pfizer vaccine.

“Too many of these questions remain answered unsatisfactorily, or not addressed at all.

“There are just too many unknowns with the Pfizer vaccine and not enough evidence to satisfy us that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.”

“These parents are not ‘anti-vax’ – in fact, many have vaccinated their children against measles, mumps, rubella and other childhood illnesses.”

The ‘hood website launched this month www.thehoodnz.com to act as a resource for parents and children to find answers to their concerns and questions. It features a video of parents (none of whom are applicants in the court case) talking openly on camera about their concerns. Watch HERE

A ‘hood survey currently underway via the website shows 900 out of the 1400 people who have completed it so far know someone who has had an adverse reaction to the Covid-19 vaccination.

The ‘hood provided more detail exclusively to Daily Telegraph New Zealand: As parents, we love our kids and want to protect them from harm. That’s why we’re delving deeper and asking questions.

Our children are our future and the decisions we make for them today will impact them for the rest of their lives.

The biggest question keeping parents throughout New Zealand awake at night right now is – if the vaccine is as safe as the government repeatedly claims, why are there so many serious adverse events and deaths reported, including here in New Zealand?

This information gap needs to be balanced against the undisputed fact that healthy children have a near-zero risk of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid. Also, most children who catch Covid have no symptoms, or only very mild symptoms.

Our website offers answers to 12 important questions your child needs parents to ask, including: Is the vaccine safe?, What are the long-term effects of the vaccine?, What’s the difference between the Covid vaccine and other childhood vaccinations?, Will getting the vaccine prevent my child from infecting others? and If my child gets vaccinated now, will that be it – job done?

As parents, whether or not we have chosen to vaccinate ourselves against Covid, we have a duty of care to scrutinise the research for our children. It’s our responsibility to keep them safe, and to do this, we need to ask more questions – not just accept the information that’s being handed to us.

Information on The ‘Hood website aims to look beyond the government’s ‘safe and effective’ narrative, tapping into the knowledge of international doctors and scientists who have observed first-hand the risk of Covid to children, and the benefits and risks of vaccination.

We need to consider real-world data from countries that have been administering the Pfizer vaccine to young people, and learn from their experience before we can truly weigh up the risks and benefits of vaccinating our children. This international data includes mounting evidence of a significant number of serious effects in children, including death.

Just as worrying is that nobody can answer the really big question of what the medium to long-term effects from the Pfizer vaccine will be, because no medium or long-term safety data is available. These include autoimmune disease, which can take years to manifest, and possible effects on fertility and the reproductive organs of both boys and girls. Any health impacts from these vaccines are far more consequential for children and young people, who have a remaining life expectancy of 55 to 80 years, than for adults.

No health professional in good conscience can look a parent in the eye and say this vaccine is unequivocally safe for their child. They need to wait for the completion of long-term safety studies before they can say with any confidence that the vaccine won’t cause irreparable harm in the short or long term.