Parents lose anti-vaccine court case

A legal challenge to the provisional approval for the Pfizer Covid-19 children’s vaccine has failed.

Yesterday a judge in the High Court at Wellington issued his decision, dismissing the claim of eight people, whose names were suppressed in the meantime.

They challenged the decision of the health minister to provisionally approve the vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, and the Cabinet’s decision on December 20 to roll out the voluntary vaccination process from January 17.

Justice David Gendall said the decisions complied with the law.

The eight applicants had sued parties including the health minister, Medsafe and drugmaker Pfizer. They were parents of children in the 5-11 age group, and they thought the decisions put at risk the welfare and wellbeing of children, the judge said.

The health minister delegated the decision-making to Medsafe’s group manager, Chris James. In his evidence, James said he reviewed the increasing medical and scientific literature about Covid-19 vaccines before and during the consent process.

A separate technical advisory group also considered the vaccine. The director-general of health at the time, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, accepted the group’s advice to offer the vaccine free of charge to children aged 5 to 11.

The judge said it was clear from the evidence that James had applied the proper legal test, and that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine was ``closely scrutinised’’.

The judge rejected claims that the vaccine was approved for children to protect older adults, and that James’ decision was pre-determined. It seemed the applicants were also mistaken about the Government’s contracts with Pfizer.