Anti-vax Auckland mayoral candidate says NZ is victim of ‘global medical tyranny’
An Auckland mayoral candidate claims the Covid-19 vaccine is “experimental” and New Zealand is being dictated to by a “global medical tyranny”.
Candidate Tricia Cheel has made numerous false claims about the Covid-19 vaccine, which has been shown to significantly reduce the severity of the virus.
Other comments made by Cheel concern mandates put in place during the Covid-19 outbreak.
A raft of workers, including health workers, were required to be vaccinated, and vaccine passes were required for people to enter Auckland Council facilities. Those mandates have since been lifted.
Cheel’s election materials, including her profile in the candidates’ list mailed out to residents by Auckland Council, repeat vaccine disinformation.
The public Facebook page for her group claims the Government implemented “draconian measures” to stop the spread of Covid.
Supplied
Tricia Cheel is running for Auckland mayor.
It refers to politicians and health leaders, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, former director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and science commentator Dr Siouxsie Wiles, as “thugs” and declares: “Lock ’em ALL up!!!”
When approached by Stuff, Cheel said the majority of the population didn’t hold the same views on the vaccine as her as they had never delved beneath the surface.
Cheel has also run for Parliament in the north Auckland suburb of Whangaparāoa as a member of the Outdoors Party (now the Outdoors & Freedom Party), which is run by lawyer Sue Grey, a key figure in the anti-vaccination movement.
Braden Fastier/Stuff
Protesters clashed with police at Parliament grounds.
Grey took part in the Parliament protest earlier this year. Cheel did not attend the protest, but said she believed the upkeep at the camp was fantastic, despite reports showing this was not the case.
Cheel has also stood unsuccessfully for the Waitematā District Health Board.
In 2017, she organised a series of Northland screenings of a film that proposed a link between vaccines and autism.
STUFF
Confirmation bias: a hardwired part of human psychology, which can make us particularly vulnerable to online misinformation and disinformation.
Nikki Turner, the director of New Zealand’s Immunisation Advisory Centre and chairperson of the WHO’s committee for measles and rubella elimination, said at the time the film was premised on “scare tactics”.
“We’re very clear about the science here … This vaccine is not associated with autism.”
Cheel is also opposed to fluoridation of drinking water, claiming it causes health problems.
Those claims have not been substantiated by experimental studies or epidemiological analyses, the Ministry of Health states.
Voting for the local body elections end at midday on October 8.
