A top researcher with Te Pūnaha Matatini questions Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern letting her social media posts be "polluted" with anti-vaccination comments.
Ardern on Sunday posted on Facebook and Instagram an image with the text "Let's talk about vaccine side effects" with the hashtag #vaccine.
"I was reading some research today, on why some people have chosen not to be vaccinated to protect them against COVID-19 yet. One of the most common is that they're worried about the side effects. So let's talk about that!" Ardern captioned the image.
"Like all medicines, you might experience some mild side effects 1-2 days after getting your vaccination. That is totally normal, and also a sign that your body is learning to fight the virus."
She recommended talking to a GP about it or visiting the Government's Unite Against COVID-19 website which has information about side effects.
But Ardern's posts were soon flooded with anti-vaccination comments, many of which were filtered out by Facebook's artificial intelligence and human fact-checkers and moderators to enforce its community standards.
Kiwi comedian Urzila Carlson wrote on Ardern's Instagram post: "RIP your comment section."
Te Pūnaha Matatini principal investigator Kate Hannah, a research fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, reacted similarly to Carlson - but she understands why Ardern did it.
"Jacinda Ardern has always used that direct line of communication. Prior to being Prime Minister, she has always used things like Facebook Lives while doing ordinary things. That's part of who she is," Hannah told Newshub.
"If someone asked me beforehand, I might have said it's likely to lead to this. But I can understand why she chose to do it and it is important to not overly change our behaviour in response to this normalisation.
"But there are human people who have to wade through those comments, who hide and delete the most offensive ones, and have to be at the end of dealing with those angry faces, and all of that.
"Having a conversation and raising issues is really important, but polluting the debate with ad hominem, with targeting, with abuse, with just anger and fear mongering, just doesn't help and just makes our society more divided."
Hannah said while there are people vehemently against vaccination, which often stems from a distrust of authority, there are also those who have genuine concerns and want someone trustworthy to engage with.
"There's also a lot of people within those groups who want to understand more about vaccination and have valid questions and they need to have an open space to ask their questions."
Halaevalu Tonga'uiha, who was once against getting vaccinated after believing conspiracies she'd read online about it containing a chip, told The AM Show she's now vaccinated after having a frank conversation with her husband.
"What changed my mind was, I had a talk with my husband... and he said to me, 'We've got to look ahead to the future because we never know when New Zealand or the world will be able to eliminate this virus'."
A common misconception about the vaccine is a safety report published by the Government's medicine regulator Medsafe. It lists 60 deaths reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring.
But 27 of these deaths are marked as being "unlikely related to the COVID-19 vaccine", 10 could not be assessed due to insufficient information, and 22 are under investigation.
The death of a woman in August may have been caused by myocarditis, a rare side effect of the Pfizer vaccine. But rumours of other deaths, such as a teenager last month, have been debunked.
While mild side effects are not uncommon - Ardern herself had a "sore arm" and "felt a bit weary", more than 5 million people in New Zealand have got the jab - including the author of this article - with no significant issues.
Hannah said the "swarming" of social media posts, like Ardern's, is often quite targeted.
"It's very noisy and they're amplifying themselves so it feels right now like they're huge but actually they're not because we know that New Zealanders are taking the vaccine in great numbers and so we have to keep that balance.
"It's noise more than it is size."
Ardern said it comes with the territory.
"That's not new," she said at a press conference earlier this week when asked about her posts being targeted by anti-vaccine comments.
"Obviously I'm not currently stopping it. I'm obviously here, so not controlling my Facebook Live. There are some things that automatically are part of Facebook's measures around COVID-19 misinformation, so much, I understand, is quite automated and not necessarily us.
"I just see this as part of the territory right now. As the vaccination rollout ramps up, yes, I see more of it across the board on social media, not just my channels. I see it in livestreams - I see it.
"In my mind, it is often quite targeted and organised and is not representative of the vast majority of New Zealanders, because the vast majority of New Zealanders have chosen to be vaccinated."
