The second report of the Covid Inquiry released shows just how extensively suspicions based on misinformation about the Covid vaccinations spread through the population.
The report found that of the 64,000 claims of adverse reactions to the vaccines, only 784 had any real substance and only five resulted in death, about the same as for any mass vaccination roll-out.
Those findings ought to have stopped those political parties that campaign on an anti-vax platform in their tracks.
But what they might show is how impervious a sizeable chunk of the New Zealand population is to facts.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peter must know that, but it doesn’t stop him.
He reacted to the report in a speech in Parliament with what amounted to a doubling down on the claims that the vaccines were dangerous.
His main complaint is that the risks to young people under 18 were not communicated clearly enough, even though the vaccine mandates essentially made vaccination compulsory.
The Commission’s report agrees with part of that.
But even so, it also makes the point – which Peters doesn’t — that expert advisory groups said that the risk of developing myocarditis or severe cardiac complications from a natural COVID-19 infection was significantly higher than the risk of developing it from the vaccine.
Peters launched into Labour’s former health minister Ayesha Verrell and leader Chris Hipkins during the general debate yesterday.
“She and Chris Hipkins, in terms of 100,000 young people, gave them treatments which they should never have got, and there she is sitting there, and the first thing she did when she was asked that question was she and Hipkins had said they didn’t know,” said Peters.
“Well, all the evidence out there today says they were not telling the truth.
“They knew.
“And what on earth is she doing here?
“The times will come when there will be all sorts of civil cases being brought against her and Hipkins, and how he can still be the leader of the Labour Party beyond me because they are irresponsible and extreme; you have been found out for the useless, hopeless personality you are.”
In March, the first report from the Commission found that in 2021 the World Health Organisation had warned the New Zealand Ministry of Health that myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) was a “rare adverse event” that could occur following administration of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (such as the Pfizer vaccine, the main one used here).
“While noting that myocarditis following vaccination is generally mild and responds to treatment, the World Health Organization advises that people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine should be instructed to seek immediate medical attention if they develop symptoms indicative of myocarditis or pericarditis, such as new onset and persisting chest pain, shortness of breath, or palpitations following vaccination,” the report said.
In July, the Ministry of Health’s Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (VTAG) had recommended that the risk was particularly relevant to the Pfizer vaccine and among people aged 16–19, who they recommended wait eight rather than two weeks for their second injection.
If they developed myocarditis after the first injection, they should not receive a second.
On August 30, 2021, the first death from myocarditis after vaccination was reported.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in her press conference that day, said this was a known, “very rare side effect” with the Pfizer vaccines.
“We had Medsafe put out an alert around this over a month ago, and, in fact, I pointed everyone to that here in one of the stand-ups,” she said.
“The risk of myocarditis after the vaccine is a lot lower than the risk of myocarditis after being infected with COVID-19, so that’s another point I’d make.”
On 9 December 2021, VTAG advised Sir Ashley Bloomfield, the Director General of Health, that the individual risk to young people of severe disease was very low.
“For them to make an informed decision not to get a second dose of the vaccine, e.g., due to potential myocarditis risk, is justified,” it said.
It also noted that those most at risk of Covid were not young people but the aged.
So VTAG recommended that people under 18 be required to have only one vaccination so that they would meet the vaccination mandate requirements for employment.
Then Health Minister Chris Hipkins has subsequently said he did not receive this advice, but RNZ obtained a paper in his name containing the advice which was presented to a Cabinet Committee.
This is the focus of Peters’ claim that Hipkins was responsible for giving 100,000 young people “treatments which they should never have got.”
But the Commission found that “the COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group advice of 9 December 2021 was not provided to Ministers.”
“We consider the failure to ensure that this specific advice reached Ministers and the public was significant,” the Commission said.
“While this deficiency is mitigated by the information that was widely published about the risk of myocarditis in this cohort, this does not diminish the issue of vaccine mandates continuing to reflect outdated advice, when advice informed by additional evidence was available.”
Thus the Commission is putting the blame on the Ministry for the failure.
However Health Minister Simeon Brown yesterday said the Ministry has since advised that fuller advice was in fact provided in early 2022
The report yesterday also does not sustain Peters’ claim that there may now be “all sorts of civil cases” being brought over the failure of the Government to carry out the advice proffered by VTAG.
“We received submissions that the Government was wrong to rely so much on vaccination as a way out of the pandemic, and should have preferred alternative strategies to vaccination, such as relying on natural immunity, taking Vitamin D or making healthy lifestyle changes,” the report said.
“This view was almost always presented to us within the context of a belief that COVID-19 was not a serious illness with high mortality.
“There is overwhelming international scientific evidence of significant rates of death and serious illness from COVID-19.149 Officials and scientists told us that relying largely on natural immunity against COVID-19 would have involved a significant burden of death and illness.”
On that basis, the Government had to balance the risks of adverse reactions to vaccines against what it considered to be much greater risks of illness and death from Covid.
Internationally, the World Health Organisation (which Peters is highly critical of) maintains a global database of adverse reactions to drugs.
The report said that in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health contracts the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring to collect and evaluate spontaneous reports of suspected adverse events to medicines.
“The Centre’s programme is a voluntary system, and any person can make a report,” the report said.
“Both before and after the pandemic, New Zealand had one of the highest rates in the world of reporting per capita.
“For serious reports, the Centre notifies Medsafe of any issues of concern, after evaluating the likelihood of an association between the medicine and the adverse reaction using causality assessment criteria standardised by the World Health Organization.”
The Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief Coroner agreed to share information about coronial investigations into deaths potentially related to COVID-19.
The Ministry’s Vaccine Safety Surveillance and Research Group maintained a close relationship with the coroners to share information about cases of interest.
“As of 2025, there had been four coroners’ findings in which a COVID-19 vaccine was implicated either as a direct or antecedent cause of the death,” the report found.
By November 2022, of 64,000 reports of adverse effects reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions, only 784 were considered serious.
However, ACC found one more death than the Corners.
“As of January 2025, ACC had accepted 1,740 claims for injuries related to the COVID-19 vaccines (out of 4,318 claims), five of which were for a fatal injury related to a COVID-19 vaccine,” the report said.
What emerges from the Royal Commission’s highly detailed report is a story of a response to a crisis.
In the harsh light of hindsight, not everything was perfect, but there remains one overriding fact.
While countries like the United States and the United Kingdom faced severe death spikes and hospital overload early on, New Zealand’s peak hospital and death rates remained roughly half or less of those seen across major North American and European nations.
But the fact that there were 64,000 reports of adverse events, almost all of which were not sustainable, suggests that there is a small minority who were highly suspicious about vaccines.
New Zealand First’s total party vote at the last election was 173,425; that minority of vaccine doubters could be a healthy chunk of that.
