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<\/p>\nThe country’s’ top coroner has this morning reiterated that the death of an Auckland teenager is not related to the Covid-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n
The teenager died on Friday.<\/p>\n
Rumours have spread online that the Year 13 student’s death was linked to the Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n
Chief coroner Judge Deborah Marshall said this morning that this was not the case.<\/p>\n
“I am aware of ongoing speculation about the cause of death in a case involving an Auckland teenager that was recently referred to the Coroners’ Court,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Based on the information available to date, it does not appear that the death in question is linked to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.”<\/p>\n
Marshall said the “issue” would still be “investigated carefully” by the coroner and “pertinent information will be requested from various agencies, including the Covid-19 Vaccination Independent Safety Monitoring Board”.<\/p>\n
“It could be a number of months before the final post-mortem report is received and all information relating to this death is obtained from relevant agencies.<\/p>\n
“The coroner’s findings will be made available once the inquiry has been completed.”<\/p>\n
Marshall said only one vaccine-related case was before her.<\/p>\n
“The Coroners Court continues to work alongside the Ministry of Health to help identify any cases that may be linked with Covid-19 vaccinations, to date only one case has been associated with vaccination,” she explained.<\/p>\n
“This case is still active with a coroner and the causes and circumstances of this death have yet to be determined.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is thought that woman died after suffering from myocarditis and pericarditis.<\/p>\n
Myocarditis is a rare side effect of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health said the board noted other medical issues were occurring at the same time, which may have influenced the outcome after vaccination.<\/p>\n
After the teenager died on Friday, speculation about what happened spread wildly across social media.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was forced to address the false information being propagated online.<\/p>\n
At her daily press conference on Sunday she there have been no reports in New Zealand of deaths related to teenagers getting vaccinated against Covid-19.<\/p>\n
Ardern said she had been advised there was no link between the death of the schoolgirl and the vaccination.<\/p>\n
“All I would say is, those who seek to make those links, I just can’t imagine how distressing that would be for family members,” she said.<\/p>\n
Any information about adverse events would have been shared proactively, she said.<\/p>\n
She advised people to be wary of believing information that came from people who were trying to undermine vaccination efforts.<\/p>\n
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield added that if there was “any possibility” of such a link, a health professional would have reported it. No such report had been made.<\/p>\n
Ardern called for people to continue getting vaccinated, saying it was the best way to protect people from the deadly virus.<\/p>\n
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