‘Moral obligation’ — Facebook star promotes Covid vaccine
Influencer supports Covid jab despite her video about son’s tragic death
Social media influencer Nicola “Nix” Adams has become a poster child for Covid-19 vaccination even as health authorities link a viral video about the death of her son to plummeting child immunisation rates among Māori.
Adams has emerged as one of the chosen faces of Te Puni Kōkiri’s campaign to increase the number of Māori receiving the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of a mass vaccination event.
She appeared last month in a video for Te Puni Kōkiri’s Karawhiua (Give it heaps) campaign. It follows surveys in New Zealand showing greater levels of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among Māori and international research that has found indigenous communities would be harder hit by an outbreak.
The Te Puni Kōkiri video followed an hour-long meeting between Adams and Māori medic Dr Mataroria Lyndon of Northland, in which she quizzed him about the Covid vaccine.
It was followed by two videos to her CWK channel on Facebook with one a 42-minute post in which Adams explained why she had chosen to be vaccinated.
She told her followers everyone had the right to choose. “For me, it’s a moral obligation,” she said, talking of how strangers would approach her.
“I’m getting it to protect not only me but your fullahs’ whānau who come up to me for hugs.”
The position was in contrast to emails among health authorities over 11 months that linked an hour-long video by Adams in May last year to Māori childhood immunisation rates falling to as low as 52 per cent.
Documents released through the Official Information Act show the link was made in an Auckland District Health Board briefing from June.
As general child immunisation rates among Māori fell, workers were told of “a live video by social media influencer Nicola Adams” that may
I’m getting it to protect not only me but your fullahs’ whānau who come up to me for hugs.
Nicola Adams
give “some insight on why some parents are declining immunisation”.
The briefing detailed Adams’ influence through her Facebook page “Cooked Whānau Kōrero with Nix”.
“Nicola is Māori and has 215,2929 Facebook followers.” The number has since increased to 489,088 followers.
“In her live video she talks about her 16-month old baby who tragically passed away at home two weeks after having his 15-month immunisation. The video has 815k views.” It has since increased to 1.8 million views.
“Nicola expressed strongly her belief that the malpractice of nurses at the two Australian medical centres contributed to her son’s death.”
The briefing also said Covid-19 was expected to have had an impact, with families reluctant to go to GPs during lockdown or to have immunisation service workers inside their bubbles.
In July last year, immunisation staff at Waitemata¯ said its child-health network had alerted it to the video.
The briefing update said: “We believe this video will be having an impact on Māori coverage nationally.”
At the end of the month, Waitematā health board contacted senior health managers in the Bay of Plenty alerting them to the Facebook post. They were told the video “is likely to impact Māori immunisation coverage”.
“I understand she lives in your part of the country so thought I would flag it to you.”
In May this year, Waitematā health board’s lead immunisation worker emailed the Ministry of Health top official on child and youth health, Dr Tim Jelleyman, about the video.
The email said the video was “likely to impact Māori immunisation coverage”, and detailed Adams’ Facebook reach, viewer numbers for the video — 1.8 million — and discussed the death of Adams’ son.
Adams, from Ahipara in Northland, lost her son Alaska in 2013 while living in Australia. In the years that followed, she developed a meth addiction while losing her husband and access to their two other children when he returned to New Zealand. Prostitution and prison followed before Adams returned to New Zealand. She charted her recovery through a Facebook page.
The success of the page, and her work as a motivational speaker, led to a bond with comedian and television personality Pio Terei, who had also lost a child. The pair now anchor a talk show on Māori Television called Terei Tonight.
The Herald on Sunday sought comment from Adams but was told by a representative she was producing a series on domestic violence and was unable to make time.
In the May 2020 video, Adams gives a detailed account of the events leading to Alaska’s unexplained death, including taking her children to health clinics in Australia for regular child vaccinations. The video was largely focused on the addiction that followed his death, her grief and how she dealt with it.
An Auckland health board spokeswoman said social media posts about vaccines had “been with us for years now”. “This is simply one example that we were letting our networks know about. We are in no way suggesting any one individual or group is responsible.”
The spokeswoman said the video was highlighted “for general information sharing reasons when we were looking at the possible contributors to Māori vaccination rates”.
“We have the deepest sympathies for Nix and her whānau for their experience and the loss of baby Alaska.”
The Herald on Sunday asked why Adams’ video was the only one highlighted by health workers. No response was provided.
A spokeswoman for Te Puni Kōkiri, which was unaware of the controversy around Adams’ post, said the video in which she featured was one of a series encouraging Covid-19 vaccination among Māori.