Southland MP Joseph Mooney told the Otago Daily Times he submitted several parliamentary written questions to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins about 10 days ago, and received some answers today.
The answers reveal 167 people in the affected vaccine group have since tested positive.
The Southern District Health Board became aware of the issue with Engage Safety’s vaccines on March 2, and that was confirmed on March 4, but the board did not start notifying any of the affected parties until March 7.
By March 21 they were still to contact 374 people, Mr Mooney said.
"There are more questions to be asked, it seems quite concerning and obviously they recognise that themselves now they’ve brought in an independent review team."
Today, the SDHB announced it had brought in The DAA Group, one of New Zealand’s leading providers of assessment and evaluation services to the health and disability sectors, to undertake the investigation into the cold chain failure event.
The three-person review team comprises a lead reviewer, a kaumatua with expertise around health quality and risk, and a hospital-based chief pharmacist who is a technical expert on cold chain systems and processes.
The review report is expected to be provided to the board at the end of this month.
In a statement, the DHB said of those affected, more than 62% had since had a replacement dose, 4% had deferred the replacement dose, 16% either intended to, or were yet to decide, and 7% had declined the vaccination.
It said, to date, there were 151 people — 10% — who had not yet been spoken to, however, "emails, texts and letters have been sent".
"The Southern DHB have become aware that for a small number of people contact details have changed, therefore there will be people who have not received sufficient information regarding this incident and their need for a replacement dose."
On its website, the SDHB said it was following advice from the Immunisation Advisory Agency and Ministry of Health by recommending people receive a replacement dose, because it had been determined the vaccine people received "did not work".
However, it also says, in the replacement vaccine frequently asked questions section, "the concern is that we cannot guarantee that the vaccine was effective, hence the need to re-vaccinate to protect against Covid".
Mr Mooney asked Mr Hipkins how the SDHB determined the vaccine did not work.
Mr Hipkins replied the Pfizer vaccine needed to be stored at "very specific temperatures" and due to the cold chain failure, the vaccines in question "experienced temperature events outside of the acceptable range".
Mr Mooney told the ODT he was concerned by the delay between recognising the issue and contacting those affected, and that there were still people yet to be contacted.
Further, the length of time of the failure "really begs the question what overview they [SDHB] had".
"There are a tonne of questions, which is, I guess, why they’ve brought in an independent review board.
"It’s a good step," Mr Mooney said.
