Covid-19: MP slams anti-vax group for leaflet drop in week vaccine clinic opens

Caroline Williams Reporter from North Shore Times

Northcote MP Shanan Halbert has slammed an anti-vaccination group for delivering its discredited leaflets the same week the area’s vaccination clinic opened.

The Voices for Freedom leaflet, delivered in the Northcote and Birkenhead areas on the North Shore, included eight points that cast doubt on the safety or efficacy of the vaccine.

Auckland University vaccinologist and associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris recently discredited the leaflet.

Halbert said he got five complaints from locals who had received the leaflet in their mailboxes this week.

“It’s disappointing people are actively trying to spread misinformation around our community and prey on people who are vaccination hesitant already.”

He believed the leaflet had been designed to scaremonger locals and delivered to align with the opening of the North Shore’s first vaccination clinic in the Highbury Shopping Centre on Monday.

“This is a direct action on their behalf to undermine our local vaccine centre and to stop our local people from going in and being immunised.”

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(In the attached video, Auckland University research fellow Kate Hannah tells you what to look for to identify misinformation about the Covid-19 virus and vaccine.)