This Ministry of Health cover up over the saline cock up is a shocker. 

July 12 at Highbrook, 732 people got their vaccinations. 

At the end of the day, the staff checked the number of jabs against the number of vials left over, and discover a mismatch: There’s a vial left over. 

Which means one possibility is that five people who got the jab didn’t get the jab, but got saline –which is salty water – accidentally. 

Now, what the Ministry of Health could’ve done when they realised this was write to every single person who went to Highbrook that day and tell them something like, “we’re not sure what’s happened, but if you want to be sure, come back and get another jab.” 

But they didn’t. 

They told no one publicly for six weeks. 

And then this morning the story broke in the media because someone – presumably someone involved in the jabbing – was so worried that possibly five people don’t have vaccine protection but think they do, that they leaked it. 

Only this morning, when the story broke, did the Ministry of Health start writing letters and sending them to the people who went to Highbrook that day. 

That is a cover up. 

What that tells you is the Ministry of Health is more concerned about its reputation, than about making sure that every kiwi has the protection they deserve and think they have. 

They literally put themselves before those five people. 

If you sometimes wonder why members of the media, including myself, have absolutely no time for the Ministry of Health.  This is why. 

Because this is what we deal with all the time. 

We’ve been lied to by the Ministry of Health so many times. 

Last year’s big lockdown Ashley Bloomfield told us there was PPE, there wasn’t. 

He told us there were flu jabs, there weren’t. 

He told us border workers were getting tested regularly, they weren’t. 

The Ministry is dishonest and it hides things, even when they know that Kiwis could be hurt by that. Because they are more worried with protecting themselves and the Government and their reputations. 

So, in future hopefully you will take this kind of cover up into account when you weigh up whether to trust the assurances of the Ministry of Health.