COVID Vaccine Death Data Leak Sparks Arrest: It 'Blew My Mind'

A New Zealand man was recently arrested after allegedly illegally accessing COVID-19 vaccine data from the country's health agency.

Barry Young, 56, a former IT employee at Te Whatu Ora, the country's health agency, was arrested and accused of illegally obtaining COVID-19 vaccine data and sharing it on the internet, the New Zealand Herald reported this week.

On Tuesday, Young appeared on Infowars,where he was interviewed by the show's host conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

"I just looked at the data and what I was seeing, since the rollout, it just blew my mind. I was just seeing more and more people dying that shouldn't have been dying. It was just obvious," Young told Jones.

Following the leak, Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa issued a statement saying: "From what we have established to date, the individual downloaded a large amount of vaccine related information. We are still working to confirm the full extent of this activity. The data, as published on an overseas site, appears to have been anonymised. Analysis of the released data is ongoing but work so far has not found any National Health Index Numbers or personally identifiable information.

"We have already used the injunction to have information taken down from an overseas website and cyber security specialists are continuing to scan extensively for any other places where the information may appear."

The incident comes as COVID-19 vaccine skeptics have continued to question the efficacy of the inoculation. Many conservatives initially criticized COVID-19 vaccine requirements in the U.S. and others have questioned if the vaccine could be linked to deaths of some high-profile people, including Friends star Matthew Perry.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently announced that he was suing vaccine manufacturer Pfizer "for unlawfully misrepresenting the effectiveness of the company's COVID-19 vaccine and attempting to censor public discussion of the product."

According to the NZ Herald, Young appeared in Wellington District Court on Monday and was granted bail to be released a day later. Young was heard yelling "freedom" as he was leaving court on Monday.

During the interview with Infowars, Young explained that he had suspicions about the COVID-19 vaccine in New Zealand since its rollout during the height of the pandemic.

"I want people to analyze this, I want people to look at it...we need to open it up and the government needs to have an inquiry about it. Just bring it to the public's attention," Young said.

Young added that he noticed some "really big red flags," in the data he accessed. He said he was accessing the data and noticing more deaths caused by the COVID-19 vaccine in New Zealand compared to the numbers released by the health agency.

Apa disputed Young's claims, saying in the statement: "What this individual is trying to claim about vaccines is completely wrong and ill-informed and their comments demonstrate this. The person has no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge and appears to be trying to spread misinformation."

Newsweek reached out to Te Whatu Ora via email for comment.