Sunday Panel: Costly turtle funeral, pay freeze and deaths after vaccine

Health officials are investigating the deaths of two New Zealanders in their 80s who have died since having the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 jab under "an abundance of caution".Officials have stated there is currently no direct link to the vaccinations.The Ministry of Health says it has been made aware of the deaths and "through an abundance of caution" they were investigating fully.Medical staff believed the deaths were not related to being vaccinated."Our sincere sympathy to their families and friends who are grieving their loss," a Ministry of Health spokesperson said.Both deaths have been reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring.The process includes Medsafe "closely" monitoring all reports.Details of when the duo where given the Covid-19 vaccine were not yet known. That includes the timing of their death after being vaccinated.She was "not at all" worried by tonight's news, vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris said."People need to understand that we're going to see lots of events occur after people have the jab."That's because around 80, mostly elderly, people died in New Zealand every day.She didn't have all the details about the deaths of the two people in their 80s, but "I know enough to know they are not in any way related to the vaccine".But the investigation was the right thing to do, the University of Auckland associate professor said."It's important to determine if there's anything concerning."She's too young to be booked in for the jab yet, but wouldn't hesitate if it was her turn tomorrow."You bet ... hundreds of millions have had [the vaccines] and there's no indication they kill people."More than 300,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 jab have been given in New Zealand so far.Listen above as Liam Hehir and Jo McCarroll discuss the responsibility of reporting on this case with Francesca Rudkin on The Sunday PanelSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.