An anti-vaxxer, too’
‘‘At the time my wife Tracy was working as a nurse at the local medical centre and immunising children daily. Yet this was my a protest against the establishment that I so mistrusted.
‘‘Fifteen months later, we had a scare. Te Miringa became unwell with high fever and body rash and the doctors were concerned as there was a measles outbreak locally. And I realised the information from the Netherlands did not reflect my reality. We got Te Miringa immunised.’’
A year later and the couple learnt that immunisation had also eliminated a killer condition known as Haemophilus Influenza, when Te Miringa – who is now following her father’s footsteps and training to practice medicine – was undergoing tests for a severe eye infection in Starship children’s hospital.
‘‘I recall the pride when I could say that our child was fully immunised and as protected as possible, knowing that then, like now, that while we could not provide 100 per cent cover from every ailment, we had made the best decision.’’
O’Sullivan says he stands by his protest at last month’s screening of Vaxxed, describing it as run by a ‘‘movement that causes illness and misery by spreading misinformation – the same misinformation that, at a different time in my life, I had wanted to believe’’ – and vowed he would continue his crusade to get all Kiwi children immunised.
‘‘My protest on that night in Kaitaia has been called many things: aggressive, intimidating, arrogant, childish and wrong. I don’t disagree with some of these – it was a protest! This was not my first and will not be my last protest,’’ he said.
‘‘The undeniable fact that is not presented in this movie is that vaccination has saved millions of lives, including tens of thousands of New Zealand children.
‘‘This fact has not been acknowledged at all, yet there is constant reference to an underlying conspiracy that attempts to undermine the trust that the public should have in a global health system driven by people like myself and colleagues who aspire only to serve our communities.’’
He slammed the Kaitaia Vaxxed screening organiser Tricia Cheel, with whom he clashed on the night, saying it was important ‘‘to confront these people’’.
‘‘I was not going to stand by and allow a lady who in all likelihood lives in a warm, dry and insulated mud-brick, solarpowered, three-bedroom home where she home-schools her 1.9 children to come to Kaitaia and peddle the flawed argument espoused by two white males of privilege who stand to profit from their roadshow – a circus that has, and will, claim the wellbeing and lives of children around the world.’’
And although he understood that – like him 20 years ago – parents might want to strike out at those in power, failing to immunise children was not the way to protest.
‘‘After Brexit, after Donald Trump’s election, during this time of global upheaval it is easy to believe in government/corporate collusion, conspiracy theories and manipulation by the establishment. But we cannot allow this suspicion and misinformation to triumph.
‘‘I know it can be confusing as a parent to know what are the best decisions to make for our children. Sometimes, it might just come down to trust in someone to provide the best possible advice because we cannot expect every citizen to have an expert view on every issue.
‘‘I believe in the absolute importance and safety of immunisation and I stand by my protest.’’