Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand has been granted an urgent injunction and filed a police complaint against a former health agency worker accused of spreading misinformation following a mass privacy breach of Covid-19 vaccination data.

The ministry said the former employee had no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge, and there was no evidence that vaccination was responsible for “excess mortality in New Zealand”.

“From what we have established to date, the individual downloaded a large amount of vaccine-related information. We are still working to confirm the full extent of this activity,” said Margie Apa, chief executive Te Whatu Ora.

“The data, as published on an overseas site, appears to have been anonymised. Analysis of the released data is ongoing but work so far has not found any National Health Index Numbers or personally identifiable information.”

Apa said an injunction had been used to have information taken down from an overseas website and cyber security specialists are continuing to scan extensively for any other places where the information may appear.

“We sought and were granted an injunction through the Employment Relations Authority that prevents any publication of the data to ensure that we can take all steps to protect the privacy of individuals.”

A police complaint has also been laid, an employment investigation is underway, and the person is no longer at work, Apa said.

“The individual has worked in the health system for a number of years. He was authorised to access data as part of his work and was locked out of our systems as soon as we became aware of the unauthorised use,” Apa said.

“We take the security of our data very seriously and are extremely disappointed at this gross breach of trust by this individual and his alleged involvement in spreading harmful misinformation.

“We can assure the public that we are doing everything we can to respond to this incident and to safeguard their information.”

She said a thorough investigation is underway, and the ministry is in a response stage.

“What this individual is trying to claim about vaccines is completely wrong and ill-informed and their comments demonstrate this. The person has no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge and appears to be trying to spread misinformation,” Apa said.

“Vaccination is safe and effective, and everyone should keep up to date with their shots to protect themselves, whanau, and their communities.”

She assured people there was no evidence whatsoever that vaccination is responsible for excess mortality in New Zealand.

“We have had a team working through the weekend to respond to this incident and are working closely with other agencies, including the National Cyber Security Centre, the Police, Department of Internal Affairs and Office of the Privacy Commissioner,” Apa said.

“We have also been offering advice and support to some individual pharmacies and vaccination sites that were identified in an early video published in relation to the unauthorised disclosure and misuse of data.”