Kāpiti Coast community board candidates donated to, worked for anti-vax groups – Stuff

The media liaison for a network of anti-vax medical practitioners is running for a community board seat at the Kāpiti Coast, while an incumbent community board member has admitted involvement with anti-vax/anti-mandate group Voices for Freedom.

Graham Fox is running for a seat on the Ōtaki Community Board. He is listed as the media contact on press releases from New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out With Science (NZDSOS).

The small group of registered New Zealand GPs and nurses, led by Wellington doctor Matthew Shelton, is against public health measures and has spread misinformation on Covid-19. Some of its members were caught charging people money for Covid-19 vaccine exemption letters that carry no standing.

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Fox did not reveal his ties with NZDSOS in his candidate statement, instead saying he wanted to “promote long term community transformation that truly benefits our families and young people”.

On his Facebook account, Fox shared false claims that face masks “do nothing for airborne diseases” and there were “undeclared components” in the Pfizer vaccine. He also repeated conspiracy theories that fraud was committed in the 2020 US presidential election.

He produced media content with other well-known spreaders of misinformation, including recording two songs with John Ansell, a former political marketing director who assailed Labour MP Kieran McAnulty last year and suggested those pushing the Covid-19 vaccine deserved to be killed with a lethal injection.

Fox also runs an account on a fringe video hosting website, where he uploaded videos such as speeches made at an anti-government protest led by the Freedom & Rights Coalition in Wellington last week and an interview with lawyer and co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party, Sue Grey.

He told Stuff there’s no reason for him to lay out his affiliation with NZDSOS because it “has nothing to do” with his candidacy for the community board.

Meanwhile, four-term Paraparumu/Raumati Community Board member Jonny Best, who is running for a seat at the new Raumati Community Board, said he donated to anti-vax/anti-mandate group Voices For Freedom (VFF) last year and is on their mailing list, but he is “not funded or supported by any organisation”.

He was also at the 23-day occupation of Parliament grounds earlier this year in what he describes as his personal capacity. VFF played a leading role in the protest.

Best told Stuff he wanted to be transparent to the voters but insisted he’s only anti-mandate but not anti-vax.

“I’ve had all my vaccines, but I haven’t had the coronavirus vaccine,” he said. “I didn’t agree with the pressure that was being put on people to take the vaccine.”

In August, it was reported that VFF asked its 100,000 members to compete in this year’s local body elections to make the country “ungovernable” and asked candidates to stand as independents instead of affiliating themselves with the group.

Best said he believed it had been “taken out of context”.

He also denied that he was behind a Facebook account that shares his name and set up days after police cleared out the Parliament occupation on March 2. The account frequently shared posts by conspiracy theorist Chantelle Baker and a page calling to try Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern “for treason”.

“Somebody has posted that,” Best said. “I don’t know who it is.”