With the announcement that key figures in New Zealand’s COVID-19 response – including former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, former Ministers Chris Hipkins and Ayesha Verrall, and former Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield – will not appear publicly before the Royal Commission of Inquiry, the public is left in the dark.
Those responsible for some of the most consequential public health decisions in our nation’s history are now shielded from scrutiny.
But the questions haven’t gone away.
This article sets out the most pressing questions that should have been asked – and answered – in public. These are drawn from two formal efforts to initiate transparency:
- A direct letter to current Minister of Health, Simeon Brown, sent on 30 June 2025.
- A comprehensive submission to the Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response.
Both efforts were grounded in publicly available data, obtained from official sources and OIA responses. Neither has been meaningfully addressed to date.
- Did You Conduct Time-Lagged Mortality Analysis After Each Booster Rollout?
Question: Did the Ministry of Health or Te Whatu Ora ever apply time-lagged or cohort-stratified mortality analysis to vaccination outcomes – particularly among the elderly?
Detailed analysis using Granger causality testing shows clear statistical associations between vaccine administration (especially third and subsequent doses) and mortality increases 3–5 months later in the 80+ age group.
These signals were visible as early as 2023. Yet there’s no evidence they were acknowledged, investigated, or acted upon by any public health body.
- Why Was Pregnancy Vaccination Promoted So Aggressively, Despite Limited Safety Data?
Question: Why did your agencies and experts tell pregnant women that mRNA vaccination was safe at all stages of pregnancy – when no long-term, randomized trial data existed?
Quotes from Helen Petousis-Harris, Siouxsie Wiles, and official Ministry guidance assured the public that there were “no biological reasons for concern” and that it was “safe and effective at any stage.”
Following this, infant and toddler deaths surged to 608 in 2022 – more than double the long-term average. No explanation has been provided.
- Why Was Cause of Death Redefined as “Death Within 28 Days of a Positive Test”?
Question: Why did the government classify COVID deaths based on test timing rather than confirmed medical cause – even after international bodies moved away from this standard?
This definition artificially inflated death counts associated with COVID, and enabled headlines such as “33% of COVID deaths were unvaccinated” – regardless of whether COVID caused the death.
No other disease is reported this way.
- Why Was Outcome Data by Vaccination Status Removed from Public Reporting?
Question: Why did Te Whatu Ora quietly shift COVID outcome data behind “for-health-professionals” URLs and later remove cohort breakdowns entirely?
Early in the vaccine rollout, per-capita outcomes were shown transparently. Once boosted cohorts began showing equal or higher hospitalisation and mortality rates, those tables disappeared.
This is not transparency. It is active obfuscation.
- Was the Booster Strategy Reassessed After Mortality Signals Emerged?
Question: After excess mortality peaked in 2022 and 2023, was the continuation of booster campaigns ever reconsidered?
All-cause excess deaths rose by 5,787 in 2022, and 3,548 in 2023 – despite falling COVID death attribution. The peaks tracked closely with booster administration waves.
Yet the public received no update, no caution, and no explanation. Only continued encouragement.
- Why Was There No Internal Audit of the 0–4 Age Group Mortality Anomaly?
Question: Why did the 0–4 mortality count more than double in 2022 – and why did no public health agency address this in any report?
Official dashboards reported ~280 deaths in this group. Stats NZ recorded 608. That’s not a rounding error – that’s an emergency. And nobody has publicly accounted for it.
- What Safeguards Are Now in Place to Prevent Similar Data Suppression in Future?
Question: What protections exist today to ensure that outcome data – by dose, age, and time since vaccination – can never again be hidden from the public?
If booster-attributed deaths or injury signals emerge in future pandemics, how will your systems behave differently?
Because right now, we have no reason to trust that they will.
Final Thoughts
When the public is asked to trust – and to comply – the very least it should receive in return is clarity, honesty, and access to the full picture.
Instead, we’ve had disappearing dashboards, redefined deaths, marketing slogans, and now silence from the very people who made those decisions.
If the Royal Commission will not ask these questions in public, then the public must ask them loudly, and in writing, and again and again.
History is watching.
And so are we.
