2014 New Zealander of the Year Dr. Lance O'Sullivan says supporters of the Vaxxed anti-vaccine documentary are perpetuating a campaign of misinformation that "will cause significant harm, disease or death."
A heated confrontation ensued between Dr O'Sullivan and organisers of a screening of the documentary in Kaitaia on Monday night telling the organisers "their actions will directly lead to babies dying."
Dr. O'Sullivan was invited to watch the documentary along with a number of other health professionals but took to the stage and shared his views on the topic.
He told Kawe Kōrero he was enraged by the presence of WavesNZ who held the screening in the community.
He says, "My greatest concern is that the most vulnerable in our community which is our Māori children will be affected by this propaganda which is just lies."
According to the WavesNZ "Its members include an increasing number of parents, caregivers, health professionals and other adults who have concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, wish to make an informed decision about whether or not to vaccinate themselves or their children; and wish to maintain their right to choose to vaccinate or not."
When questioned over whether he had proof that not immunising children led to death he gave a personal example.
"I'm like many doctors around the country only within the last two years I held within my hands in the Kaitaia hospital, the ravaged body of a young Māori child who is doing their best to die in my hands and the hands of the nurses who are helping us. We transferred that child to Starship Hospital Intensive Care Unit where it's heart failed, the child's lungs were failing and the kidneys were failing all because this child got a disease contracted a disease that is preventable with immunisation."
WavesNZ openly supports the concept that "natural immunity is superior to artificial immunity."
O'Sullivan said, "Yes, there's a iikelihood they'll get through life, last night I was speaking to a mother who has a 14-year-old who's never been immunised and I said,'look, thats just by chance, thats good luck,' we shouldn't be relying on good luck and chance to protect our children's health.
"So look I would say that it happens far more often than we should accept and the adverse reactions from immunisations are insignificant compared to the bennefit of vaccine preventable diseases, maming and taking the lives of our children."
According to Ministry of Health Statistics, immunisation coverage for New Zealand children at eight months of age is 92.3 percent for the three month period ending March 2017.