Burnett Foundation Monkeypox letter to government ‘hysterical’ says NZDSOS

In a press release today New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS) respond to a recent letter from the The Burnett Foundation to the government calling for Monkeypox action.

DTNZ has decided to publish the release in full, as follows:

The Burnett Foundation (formerly the New Zealand AIDS Foundation) has written an almost hysterical letter to the government about a supposed new infectious threat, MONKEYPOX (MPX).

And the government seems to be taking it very seriously. If you listened to Dr Nick Chamberlain on Thursday 4 Aug @21.40 he said:

“We have been working with the Burnett Foundation (BF). Both Dr Old and I have an appointment with the CEO next week and we will ask the BF and NZ Sexual Health Society to participate in our ongoing planning and be involved in the dedicated team that are engaged there. So I believe we are taking a careful approach and we’ve been quite deliberate and ensured that we have covered off pretty much all of the actions that the BF have put in their letter. I looked at the letter as a prompt rather than a criticism of us.”

Why would the government be taking the lead from the BF with their big, red, urgent pox-like exclamation marks, especially when it (the government) has repeatedly ignored the serious concerns of a group of highly qualified and experienced doctors, scientists and other health care professionals over adverse effects from the Pfizer vaccine?

Who are the Burnett Foundation and what credentials and qualifications do they have to be guiding the government? More importantly, who is funding them and what conflicts of interest do they have? Why did they suddenly rebrand, change their trust deed and change their name in 2021 and 2022? What future role did they think (? know) they were going to play?

Perhaps a true investigative journalist can answer some of these questions.

So, back to the convoluted, repetitious, overwrought letter which, in addition to containing the word ‘urgent’ 19 times, also contains statements such as:

“MPX cases internationally have intensified into a crisis, particularly in Europe, with numbers rapidly increasing and overwhelming health systems.” Really? 23,000 cases of a mostly mild self-limiting infection in the whole world are overwhelming health systems?

“We must act now to once again demonstrate that Aotearoa can be a global leader in infectious disease control.” – Surely rational calm thought would be better than accelerated panic. We don’t think NZ can claim to be a global leader in infectious disease control. All we did with covid was delay the inevitable and now, while highly vaccinated, we have one of the highest death and case rates in the world with covid-19, mostly in the injected, like all the heavily vaccinated countries are seeing.

“…robust vaccine delivery plan…” – We should not put the cart before the horse. Dr Chamberlain advises us that Pharmac is working to ‘procure supplies’ of the vaccine Imvanex and talks about what will happen when our vaccine order arrives ‘including issues around eligibility, distribution and workforce.’ There does not even seem to be an application for use of Imvanex on the Medsafe website yet. If it hasn’t been approved for use, why are we procuring supplies and planning how to use it? What happens if it doesn’t get approved? Will the recent changes to the Medicines Act for covid-19 vaccination be used for this vaccine too, to allow the Director General of Health to authorise use of a medicine without the need for a doctor?

“…requires self-isolation for up to four weeks…” – Does the BF and/or government really think people are going to self-isolate for 4 weeks for a self-limiting viral infection or will quarantine camps be enforced?

“…rapid spread of MPX indicates a failure of the public health strategies that were implemented early on overseas…” What, so we need to have even more failing public health strategies?

“…including vaccine procurement for pre-exposure prophylaxis… …prevent bridging into the health workforce…” – Sounds like health care workers are going to be expected to line up for yet another vaccine with limited clinical data to keep their patients safe. Will they be keen or willing?

“…an unclear infectious period and many patients presenting with atypical symptoms and very limited or no prodromal illness.” – These statements suggest that anyone and everyone will be able to be tangled up in the sticky web.

“…substantial proportion of patients may require hospital-level care…” – Is this actually the case, or is this a statement to increase the pressure to do something?

“…rapidly evolving nature of this crisis…” – more fearmongering

“Aotearoa must establish a MPX response team that oversees national plans for testing, assessment, treatment, vaccination, and communication strategies.” – Sounds like the infection control police. Will there be any ethical health care practitioners involved or just medicine by government decree? Can BF please provide evidence of the type and accuracy of testing, treatment and vaccination, before shrieking for a plan that includes these?

“This may involve repurposing of COVID-19 legislation…” So, here we go again with all the restrictive measures and more.

“…we cannot afford to wait for a widespread outbreak to justify a plan to address MPX.” – But we should pause and evaluate things sensibly rather than in this seemingly panicked way.

“… that window (of opportunity) is closing…” It is a mostly mild self-limiting viral infection. There would seem no need for such a response at this time.

Is this for real? Or are we being taken for a(nother) ride? We’re imagining Prof Rod Jackson ‘freaking out’ in the safety of his academic ivory tower and Michael Baker wanting to mask everyone at the thought of another infectious disease running rampant. Why have we become a nation so scared of infectious disease with tunnel vision as the way to manage it? Human beings have immune systems, we are not all equally vulnerable. And vulnerability can be reduced in other ways besides compulsory vaccination. .

According to the MoH website: “Since Thursday 9 June 2022 MPX is a notifiable disease in New Zealand on Schedule 1 of the Health Act 1956 which enables a prompt response to a MPX case to minimise the risk of community transmission. Now that MPX is a notifiable disease, health practitioners must notify the medical officers of health of suspected cases or confirmed cases.”

In our opinion, what is needed is a cool, calm appraisal of the facts rather than overblown panic and hysteria based on modelling that seems to suggest an ulterior motive. Answers are needed to some fundamental questions first:

• First of all, does the supposed virus actually exist?
• Has it been proven beyond all doubt or is this another creation of a synthetic genetic sequence in a laboratory?
• How is monkeypox being diagnosed? We have learnt all about the shortcomings of the PCR test in the Covid fiasco – when enough cycles are done any genetic sequence can be detected.
• Are there sick people, and if so are they confined to a particular lifestyle group that could manage its own risk?
• How sick are they and do they get better on their own?
• What can be done to reduce chance of getting infected or to improve recovery from infection? How can the terrain of the individual be improved, thereby not only improving the health of the individual but also taking the burden off our hospitals??
  • Do we really need to ‘minimise community transmission’ or is this a disease people will get and then get over like most other infectious diseases?
• Do some people have pre-existing immunity from other similar diseases?
• What treatments are there?

To us, this looks like a very thinly disguised further attempt to get us all onto a digital control grid, by bringing back contact tracing and QR codes and penalties for non-compliance.

Regarding the vaccine that is on its way, since no company appears to have applied to get vaccine approved in NZ, we have to rely on overseas information about Imvanex (or Jynneos as it is also called). This is a smallpox vaccine, not specifically designed for monkeypox. The history of smallpox vaccines is interesting. Contrary to popular belief, smallpox was largely eradicated due to improvements in living conditions, and access to sanitation and clean water. Prior to the covid injections, the smallpox vaccine was the most dangerous vaccine in history. In an eerie similarity to the “river of filth”, large protests took place in England when the smallpox vaccine was mandated resulting in the death of many children. Parents were reported to have chosen jail over vaccinating their children. Are there robust placebo-controlled human clinical studies on Imvanex that BF can point to before suggesting a vaccination program?

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA):

“Data from several animal studies showed protection against monkeypox in non-human primates vaccinated with Imvanex and then exposed to the monkeypox virus.”

“For the prevention of monkeypox, the Agency considered that the effectiveness of Imvanex could be inferred from animal studies.”

“… because of the similarity between the virus in Imvanex (‘modified vaccinia virus Ankara’) and the variola (smallpox), monkeypox and vaccinia viruses, antibodies against it are expected to protect against monkeypox.”

In the (United Kingdom Health Security Agency) UKHSA’s leaflet updated in May 2022 it says:

“IMVANEX may not fully protect all people who are vaccinated.”

The WHO, no less, have stated, via official Tim Nguyen, that everyone who received the Monkeypox vaccine is considered to be part of a “clinical study” for the purpose of data collection so that researchers can learn more about the “effectiveness of the vaccine”.

So we have a vaccine for a different disease that has had very limited use in human beings, that has animal studies showing some protection, that the WHO considers is still part of a clinical study, we have wishful thinking that humans are expected to be protected and we have hinted that the government may be able to prescribe this for its citizens. There’s also a lengthy list of potential side effects. Who wants to participate?? We have alarm bells ringing.

This sort of decision-making needs to be done after public discussion that includes wide and varied opinions from health professionals without conflicts of interest. We should not rely on a narrow group of ‘experts’ without knowing who they are and why they are there. Have we learnt nothing from the most recent panic-demic?