Ep 124 N8 12th July 2024 Crown Expert Witnesses Heading For Trouble?

This week a very useful OIA has revealed the existence of a MoH report "Science and Insights"report from 19 October 2021.The significance of this document is that it totally contradicted the purported need for the Education and Healthcare mandates, yet the Crown kept this information from the High Court in the NZDSOS/NZTSOS High Court hearing in March 2022.

Its existence was only uncovered as Dr Town – Chief Science Advisor to the Ministry of Health – used it in the subsequent Orewa Community Church case to support his contention that churches had a much greater risk of transmission than schools!

This report, released 19 October 2021, contains the analysis of the transmission of covid-19 in New Zealand between August and October 2021, using data the Ministry had obtained from their contact tracing.

5 main points - (copied from NZDSOS article)

1. This was the best and most relevant study that the Crown had in its possession concerning transmission of covid-19 in New Zealand schools and healthcare settings when they decided to implement the Education and Healthcare Workers mandates.

a. It was the Government’s own data.

b. The sample sizes were large (>11,000, >5000) making it very reliable.

c. It relates to the Delta variant, which the courts have stressed as pertinent.

d. It specifically analysed transmission within NZ school and healthcare settings.

2. It showed that educational and healthcare settings had incredibly low rates of transmission (only 1-2 in 1,000 contacts became infected), completely negating the need for the mandates.

3. It was produced** by the MoH before Hipkins signed the Education and Healthcare Workers vaccination orders.

4. The Crown’s expert witnesses (Drs Bloomfield and Town) as well as Hipkins omitted to share this information with the High Court in their sworn affidavits.

5. By withholding this highly relevant information from the High Court, Bloomfield and Town contravened the High Court rules for expert witnesses. (Dr Town did refer to a similar but much smaller study from NSW that had a higher transmission rate!)

Transmissions Rates
Education - 1 in 1000 or 0.1%
Health care - 1 in 500 or 0.2%
Work 0.6%
Private gatherings - 10%

We discuss a range of interesting points about this article and the cases relating to it

Orewa Church case
CIV-2022-485-9 [2022] NZHC 2026
16 - 17 June 2022
Science and Insights Report
https://fyi.org.nz/request/27581-a-copy-of-trends-and-insights-report-full-analysis-of-vaccine-effectiveness-2021

Another must watch and share far and wide!