Te Whatu Ora is reminding people to stay up to date with their vaccines after misinformation was spread by a health agency staff member.
Chief executive at Te Whatu Ora Margie Apa said the staff member, who has no clinical background or expert knowledge, was trying to spread misinformation.
"What he is claiming is completely wrong and ill-informed and his comments demonstrate this.
"Sadly, we have continued to see conspiracy theorists disseminating false and harmful misinformation."
Apa said the worker was trying to "misuse our data to spread misinformation". He was no longer at work at an employment investigation was underway.
Apa told 1News she couldn't express how disappointing it was that a contributing member of their team had "really just let us down".
"He's stolen this data from us and we're really mindful that New Zealanders trust us with information, so being able to trust our staff to undertake their duties and treat this information respectfully is really important to us," she said.
She said the information this individual had access to in their day-to-day job was non-clinical.
"The inferences he's drawn are just wrong," she said.
Apa said the case was "very unusual" in Te Whatu Ora's existence as staff are highly trusted.
Te Whatu Ora told 1News the worker shared misinformation on a Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy site.
Apa said that "Covid-19 is still in the community" and vaccines remain safe and effective and people should keep up to date with their shots to protect themselves, whānau and their communities.
"We assure people there is no evidence whatsoever that vaccination is responsible for excess mortality in New Zealand and that they can continue to have confidence in vaccines," she said.
Apa also outlined the publicly available data showing four deaths in New Zealand are possibly linked to adverse reactions following Covid-19 vaccination, in the context of 3361 people whose deaths have to date been directly attributed to Covid-19 in New Zealand, with more than 12.6 million vaccines administered to eligible New Zealanders as of October 2 2023.
"By chance and separate to a prior Covid-19 vaccination event, some people will experience new illnesses or die from a pre-existing condition shortly after vaccination, especially if they are elderly," she said.
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