By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D, 09/16/24
A New Zealand government official last week alleged the country’s COVID-19 commission is ignoring the voices of people injured by the vaccines.
Tanya Unkovich, a member of the New Zealand Parliament, spoke on Sept. 11 and called for the second phase of the Royal Commission: COVID-19 Lessons Learned to give a voice to people who were affected by COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
The call comes as a legal case against Barry Young [pictured here], a New Zealand government whistleblower, drags on.
Last year, Young, then an employee of New Zealand’s Ministry of Health, leaked data suggesting “really big red flags” and “really big safety signals” connected to the COVID-19 vaccines. He is facing trial and seven years’ imprisonment.
In her parliamentary speech, interrupted by heckling from parliament members, Unkovich said:
Many New Zealanders … have felt shunned, ignored, gaslit, coerced, isolated and forgotten. New Zealanders [are] unable to participate in an inquiry where they can truly tell their stories.
Those stories can include vaccine mandates, vaccine efficacy and safety, the reporting and monitoring of adverse reactions to vaccines and vaccine approvals and procurement.
Unkovich said she and members of her party, New Zealand First, have spoken to people injured by the COVID-19 shots. She said:
New Zealand First knows that there are stories out there because we have spent the time to listen to them. We all have our personal experiences to draw on during these years. I certainly have mine now.
This House must understand that there are still many Kiwis out there who are still hurting. We have walked with them, sat with them and we are working to support their needs in this house.
The people involved are not looking for the truth
Katie Ashby-Koppens, an Australian attorney who worked with groups in New Zealand opposed to pandemic-related mandates and restrictions told The Defender, “It’s about time a politician has stood up to acknowledge those injured by the COVID-19 injections.”
According to Ashby-Koppens, the Royal Commission, launched in December 2022, “was commenced by our former Labour government,” including the country’s ex-prime minister Jacinda Ardern — “the ones that imagined and then enforced the COVID public health measures.”
Young told The Defender the commission is “a legacy hangover from the days of Ardern’s frightening term in power.” He described Ardern as “the most despotic, terrifyingly unsympathetic and inhumane leader in New Zealand history.”
According to the commission’s most recent quarterly report, published in March, “almost 13,000 New Zealanders shared their stories with the Inquiry.”
But Steve Kirsch, founder of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, told The Defender, “We hear the talk, but we don’t see people walking the talk. The talk sounds great, but the actions aren’t backing up the words so far.”
“The people involved are not looking for the truth,” Kirsch said. “They’re looking to basically provide cover so that the government can say, ‘yes, we had an investigation and everything is fine, and let’s continue to do this for the next 20 years while we kill people.’”
According to Ashby-Koppens, limits to the inquiry’s scope, spelled out in the 2022 government order establishing the commission, have turned the investigation into “a farce.”
These limits include any investigation into vaccine efficacy, “particular clinical decisions made by clinicians or by public health authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” and how and when the strategies and other measures devised in response to COVID-19 were implemented or applied “in particular situations or in individual cases.”
Young said the inquiry set easily attainable standards for itself.
“Apparently, all legitimate safety concerns were ‘out of scope’ for this commission,” Young said. “The current Royal Commission has got the complete wrong end of the stick. The low bar they set themselves has been easily met. This was a sham, wasting millions of taxpayers’ money.”
In its preelection campaign, New Zealand First included a call for expanded terms for a Royal Commission “and on the back of that election promise, New Zealand First got the eight seats it did,” Ashby-Koppens said.
These promises also made their way into the party’s coalition agreements with its governing partners, Ashby-Koppens said.
Ashby-Koppens said there is support for expanding the country’s COVID-19 inquiry, noting that a draft proposal she prepared earlier this year garnered over 30,000 signatures.
However, the partners in New Zealand’s governing coalition have been unable to agree on terms for an expanded inquiry.
“This has brought about the resignation of the remainder of the Phase 1 Commissioners,” Ashby-Koppens said, noting that Phase 2 will “focus on vaccines” but “still excludes the specific epidemiology of the COVID-19 virus and its variants.”
According to Ashby-Koppens, the final report of Phase 1 of the inquiry is due in November, but Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden announced earlier this month she will withhold the report’s findings from the public until the completion of Phase 2 of the Inquiry.
“The Phase 2 report is not expected out until early 2026 — just in time for the next election,” Ashby-Koppens said. “Sitting on the Phase 1 report for another 18 months seems unjust.” ....
Many New Zealanders … have felt shunned, ignored, gaslit, coerced, isolated and forgotten. New Zealanders [are] unable to participate in an inquiry where they can truly tell their stories.
Those stories can include vaccine mandates, vaccine efficacy and safety, the reporting and monitoring of adverse reactions to vaccines and vaccine approvals and procurement.
New Zealand First knows that there are stories out there because we have spent the time to listen to them. We all have our personal experiences to draw on during these years. I certainly have mine now.
This House must understand that there are still many Kiwis out there who are still hurting. We have walked with them, sat with them and we are working to support their needs in this house.
The people involved are not looking for the truth
