Tell us the truth: an open letter to Medsafe and the Ministry of “Health” on transparency

Kia ora Medsafe and “Health” Ministry peeps and friends,

Well, we were hoping we wouldn’t need to write you this letter. However, recent events have got right up our nostrils – in an unsolicited swab kind of way!

Crumbs you must be dizzy with all your spin lately! The outrageous propaganda, lofty promises, and jaw-dropping explanations are something to behold. And the cost you must be racking up to sell us our frog-march towards a fully jabbed population is making our eyes water.

Your enticing syringe-shaped carrot of “normality” hangs in front of the masses who continue what seems to be an inevitable collective shuffle towards The Solution, aka a vaccine. We see you trying your hardest to convince them that if everyone gets jabbed, they can return to the good old days of 2019 where people could freely work, travel and enjoy themselves, sans the ever-present media-seeded cloud of fear and doom.

And now, oh dear – are you really prioritising commercial interests ahead of sufficiently informing the public on the efficacy of a rushed-experimental-jab? Oh, yes, you are. Your messaging [aka brainwashing], and phrases like “swift progress”, “rigorous and robust assessment”, and assurances that you won’t cut corners – is rubbish. You care more about the money that lines the pockets of big pharma than you care about your Team of 5 million.

We asked, via an OIA, for the data you have been using to assess the warp-speed vaccines’ efficacy to give you a chance to back up your claims of “transparency” and “robustness”. Given your promises, it seemed pretty reasonable that you’d show us the “large volume” of relevant peer-reviewed papers, pre-prints and other information provided to you by the vaccine manufacturer or distributor.

We asked you to:

• Name the placebos used, or the control/comparator (usually another unrelated vaccine) used instead of an inert placebo.
• Show that the vaccine(s) prevented infection or carriage of SARS-CoV-2.
• Prove that symptoms in vaccinated people were lessened, including severe infection resulting in hospitalisation and ICU care.
• Show the vaccine(s) to be effective at preventing death from complications of severe disease.

These aren’t difficult questions. We all know the answers: the manufacturers, you and us. And we all know we have to play this tedious little game of cat and mouse to get any real info out of you. Cos, none of this juicy detail will ever make the six o’clock news like the hyped-up, suspiciously light, “95% effective” claims, will it? You and the media will glide right on over it – just like you both ignored this wee gem from the prestigious BMJ late last year [1]:

“Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said, “Ideally, you want an antiviral vaccine to do two things . . . first, reduce the likelihood you will get severely ill and go to the hospital, and two, prevent infection and therefore interrupt disease transmission.”

Yet the current phase III trials are not actually set up to prove either (Table 1). None of the trials currently underway are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths. Nor are the vaccines being studied to determine whether they can interrupt transmission of the virus.”

And this candid piece from the chief medical officer of Moderna, the company behind one of the new experimental mRNA vaccines [1]:

“Our trial will not demonstrate prevention of transmission,” Zaks said, “because in order to do that you have to swab people twice a week for very long periods, and that becomes operationally untenable.”

Your reply to our official OIA request landed our inbox yesterday with an unscrupulous (though not unexpected) thud. It was awkwardly worded, but in a nutshell, you told us that you’re pulling the confidentiality card to protect vaccine manufacturers’ financial interests. Nice one.

You said:

“Information submitted to and held by Medsafe regarding COVID-19 vaccines that is in the scope of your request is confidential to the respective companies. As such, this information is withheld under section 9(2)(b)(ii), to protect information where the making available would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied the information.”

Look, if the bulk of this information was not yet available, why didn’t you say that? If we asked too many questions, why not ask us to whittle things down? Instead, your excuse leaves a bad taste. What you’ve told us is that New Zealanders don’t matter. You said that the bottom line of the greedy pharmaceutical companies trumps the provision of critical information to Kiwis. So much for transparency and keeping us safe. We knew it was all spin.

So, when might you consider letting your giant Team of Five Million in on the fact that they’ll be a part of the largest post-market, unofficial clinical trial to date? Can we also expect guinea-pig food with our jab vouchers?

As it stands, the Team of 5 million foots the bill for the rushed-experimental-jabs. We aren’t allowed to know the details for the rushed-experimental-jabs, but we’ll pay for the campaign-of-more-brainwashing to reassure us that the rushed-experimental-jabs are safe and necessary. We have to turn a huge blind eye because the rushed-experimental-jabs will not stop the dreaded virus. Details schmetails, eh? The Team of 5 million must also pay to help all the poor souls who draw the short straw and end up harmed by the rushed-experimental-jabs, but you’ll never admit that the rushed-experimental-jabs are at fault because the data about flaws are all top-secret. Instead, you’ll blame the dreaded virus. It doesn’t sound so rosy now does it?

One thing is for sure: When you take Kiwis for a ride, they let you know. They don’t give up, and they won’t shut up. We know that thousands of Kiwis are not happy to take a dodgy rushed-experimental-jab because they keep signing our petition.

Look, at the end of the day, we want our whole Team of 5 million to make choices that best suit them, but so everyone gets the chance to know what kind of decision they’re making, we also demand that you be completely transparent and put the safety of your Team of 5 million above the commercial interests of big pharma. Give all of us the information we deserve.