A health worker allegedly leaked COVID-19 data that he claims shows excess deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines in New Zealand. The worker has been arrested and charged for unauthorized access and disclosure of private vaccination data, according to Te Whatu Ora, New Zealand’s public health agency. Conspiracists claim the worker has been targeted for exposing vaccine danger. A well-known vaccine opponent presented his analysis of the illegally obtained data during a presentation in which he claimed that COVID-19 vaccines have killed 13 million people worldwide.
These claims are the latest example of vaccine opponents misinterpreting and misrepresenting data to make false claims about COVID-19 vaccine safety. Talking points may highlight that the health worker and the vaccine opponent who presented the data have no expertise in vaccine safety or epidemiology and that experts in those fields have dismissed their claims as “nonsense.” Debunking messaging may explain that verified data from New Zealand and worldwide show that, with over two-thirds of the world’s population vaccinated, COVID-19 vaccination is not linked to increased mortality. Messaging may also emphasize that vaccine opponents are attempting to link an increase in deaths months after vaccine rollout, during two COVID-19 waves, to COVID-19 vaccines when the more likely reason is infection.
