The Ministry of Health has issued a response to claims made by a Wānaka GP about the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr Mark Edmond was unable to continue working as a GP at Aspiring Medical Centre, where he had worked for eight years, because he remained unvaccinated for Covid-19 and a government Health Order has mandated that health workers must be vaccinated because they have an ethical and a legal obligation not to put their vulnerable patients at risk.

Mark is the only GP out of approximately 18 in Wānaka to have taken this position.

In an interview with Wānaka Sun reporter Aimee Owen last week (Thursday November 18), Mark said he had left his job because freedoms had been taken away “for something that has not been shown to be particularly effective in the real world”.

He also cited the loss of five freedoms he was concerned about: freedom of movement (lockdowns), mask wearing, freedom of “what to put in your own body”, freedom of association, and freedom of expression because he was ”not allowed to say anything that goes against the vaccine”.

Vaccine or gene therapy?

Mark claimed the Covid-19 vaccine was not a vaccine, but “technically it’s a gene therapy”.

He said gene therapy is “when you introduce genetic material to a cell and get the cell to do something”, while a vaccine is “when you introduce something to the body and then you get the immune system to respond to that thing”.

Ministry of Health chief science advisor Dr Ian Town said the Covid-19 vaccine provides substantial protection against symptomatic infection, developing severe disease, and transmitting Covid-19 to others. PHOTO: Reuters

Ministry of Health chief science advisor Dr Ian Town said the Covid-19 vaccine “is universally accepted as having vaccine status”.

“The Pfizer vaccine is not a gene therapy because it does not change a person’s genes,” Ian said. More on this can be found here.

“The mRNA from the Pfizer vaccine cannot enter the nucleus of cells to be able to interact with our genetic material.”

Find more information here on how the vaccine works.

Is the vaccine effective?

Ian said the Covid-19 vaccine provides substantial protection against symptomatic infection, developing severe disease, and transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others. 

“For Pfizer, effectiveness against symptomatic Delta infection ranges from 87-92 percent and effectiveness against severe disease/hospitalisation ranges from 80-100 percent,” he said.

Earlier studies carried out by researchers showed that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine substantially reduced transmission of the virus. 

“Emerging data on the Delta variant suggests that the Pfizer vaccine reduces onwards transmission (ie once a person has become infected, the risk of passing the virus on to someone else) by around 40-63 percent depending on the vaccination status of the contact.”

Find more information here and here.

Ian said it is important to note that the reduction in transmission is in addition to individual protection against infection. 

“This means that vaccination significantly reduces the chance of becoming infected and also substantially decreases the likelihood of transmitting the virus if a vaccinated person becomes infected,” he said.

Find a summary of vaccine effectiveness data here.

“Getting fully vaccinated is how we protect each other, our whānau, and our community, against the delta variant of the virus,” Ian said.

Is the vaccine safe?

Ian said the Covid vaccine is one of the more intensively studied medicines of our time. 

“The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine has met international standards for quality, safety, and efficacy. The vaccine is very safe and highly effective; the benefits of the vaccine’s protection from the virus, (and from severe illness), outweigh any risks,” he said.

“The Pfizer vaccine we are using in New Zealand is held to the same high safety standards as any other medicine. Nearly 50 percent of the world's population have had a Covid-19 vaccine, and more than three million people in Aotearoa have had their first Pfizer vaccine. This means we have lots of data to show the Pfizer vaccine has been thoroughly assessed for safety.”

Ian said the vaccine was assessed by New Zealand’s medicines safety authority, Medsafe, which evaluates applications for all new medicines (including vaccines) to make sure they meet international standards and local requirements.

“Covid-19 vaccines are being held to the same standards and requirements as all vaccines before they get full approval,” he said.

“Medsafe will only recommend a medicine is approved to use in New Zealand if it meets these standards. If approval is granted, it will either be full approval under section 20 of the Medicines Act 1981, or provisional approval under section 23.”

Medsafe focuses on safety, efficacy, and quality when assessing a vaccine. Its assessment includes looking at manufacturing and quality control information, pre-clinical data, and results from clinical trials.

Other options

New Zealanders will soon be able to access a second type of the Covid-19 vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine. Medsafe granted provisional approval of AstraZeneca in July 2021 for people aged 18 and older.

The 100,000 doses are for people who can’t have the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for medical reasons, and for those who would like an option other than the Pfizer vaccine.

From Friday (November 26) anyone aged 18 and older who wishes to have the AstraZeneca vaccine will be able to book an appointment on BookMyVaccine.nz or by calling Healthline.

“AstraZeneca will be available at a limited number of sites across the country as Pfizer is the main Covid-19 vaccine we are using in New Zealand,” Ian said, but he added that district health boards are arranging for specific clinics to administer the vaccine.