By Sean Adl-Tabatabai – The People’s Voice
Thousands of nurses in New Zealand say they now fear for their lives as the public begin rising up against the genocide committed against them during the pandemic.
The names and details of over 12,000 vaccinators in New Zealand was recently leaked online. The Te Whatu Ora data breach has left nurses who administered the deadly shots fearing a backlash from an angry public.
Nzherald.co.nz reports: She was not sure what else to do to feel safer, and so far had asked her landlord to fix her fence.
“I just worry that someone will come to my house and threaten me and my children,” she said.
The email to the vaccinators said their names were found on a document on the US site on January 25.
“To the best of our knowledge, your name was removed from the publicly available file on 29 January,” it said. “In saying this, I also need to acknowledge that the information is still held by one or more parties outside of our control.”
The nurse worried people might track her down years later and wanted Te Whatu Ora to guarantee it would support any nurses with safety help long-term.
She felt let down by the breach. The importance of privacy was drilled into her and her colleagues in training and she had expected the same from Te Whatu Ora, she said.
“I assumed that their standard of confidentiality and privacy would be top-tier, pretty much everything sealed so nothing like this could happen,” she said. “I’m quite frustrated they haven’t upheld their side of keeping us, as nurses, safe in New Zealand during a pandemic.”
Union the Nurses Society represented about 6000 nurses, and its director David Willis said they had heard from a lot of worried people. They were also concerned that they could be approached.
Wills said he had not spoken to anyone who had been threatened or harassed, but the union had emailed advice to all its members on what to do if they were.
“Of course, people are mindful that [the data] is still in the hands of people outside their control and that is concerning and disturbing and hopefully Te Whatu Ora has taken steps to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
In a statement, Te Whatu Ora chief of people Andrew Slater said any unauthorised release of data was a gross breach of trust and they were very disappointed.
The agency understood staff and the public trusted them with sensitive data, and it was working to improve internal controls and strengthen data security, he said.
He apologised to all those impacted.
The agency had set up a helpline the vaccinators can call, and its letter suggested other services to go to as well if people wanted advice.
Former Te Whatu Ora employee Barry Young was due in court on Friday, accused of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes in relation to the leaked Te Whatu Ora data.