Dose 1: Pfizer 10th November 2021
Rachel’s testimony (Nechama’s mum):
When the vaccine mandates began, my daughter was at the end of her 7th grade year in school. She had been practicing for a ballet school performance show all year. Her life was dance. The government decided to force an experimental vaccine on its population, and she was required to have the first dose in order to continue her ballet classes and be in the year-end performance.
Her regular school was required to keep a list of unvaccinated students and the pressure was incomprehensible. We wanted to wait on the vaccine until more trials proved its safety and efficiency.
By November 2021, there was growing evidence that the vaccine could have serious side effects – but this information was being suppressed in New Zealand as “disinformation.” Our 14-year-old daughter was in a very low-risk group and had no underlying health issues whatsoever. She didn’t need this vaccine. The social pressure and government pressure was immense. As visa holders we were terrified that the next mandate around the corner would force us to lose our visas and lose our jobs.
Nechama made the choice a young teenage girl should never have to make. She chose ballet despite her health concerns and personal preferences.
The night after the vaccine we were terrified. We had no idea what was to follow. After having normal menstrual periods on schedule like clockwork for more than a year, they suddenly stopped. She gained over 63 pounds in a few short months with no change in diet or exercise. Our daughter essentially began menopause at age 14.
The doctors told us to wait. They insisted her periods would return. Months went by, 18 months so far. We reached out for help only to hear it MIGHT be the vaccine. To this day, no doctor has tried to help us. We have turned to alternative medicine after this disappointment. But alternative medicine hasn’t restored her cycle either. The doctors tell us that this year, we will have to start our fifteen-year-old daughter on medication so that she will not develop osteoporosis. Her other symptoms have been chronic inflammation, and her nose, never stops running. We have been to allergists, endocrinologists, gynaecologists, family practice doctors and nothing. No help. No answers. I feel a cold rage against the bureaucratic bullies who imposed draconian restrictions and mandates on us for nearly two years of the four we lived in Wellington. We left New Zealand in July 2023 as a place we can no longer call our home. I cannot forgive what Jacinda and her government did to our daughter.
Nechama’s Testimony
When I was at the end of 7th grade, I had a major ballet show coming up that I had been practicing towards for months. I was so excited! But that excitement came to a halt when I was told that I had to be vaccinated to dance in it. Normally, I would be fine with getting shots; I’ve already had the necessary vaccines.
However, this one was new, untested (despite what they told us) and with no research of long-term effects, or really any effects at all. My parents and I had long discussions on the consequences of Covid versus the potential consequences of the vaccine.
On top of that, we were all receiving pressure from everyone: socially, economically, media wise, and from all the programs we were in. Eventually, we caved in, and I got my first vaccine in November 2021.
It became apparent from the day after I got it that I wasn’t reacting very well. My face had swollen, my arm was super heavy and painful for a few days, and there were some other symptoms as well.
Immediately after I got the vaccine, I had a super heavy menstrual period, and then the month after that, nothing.
In the next 7 months it was as if I had gone into early menopause.
We went to Wellington doctors, who told us to just wait it out, that it had happened to some other people, and that it would definitely come back. We waited, and eventually looked for the help of alternative doctors, who gave us treatments to try. Yet still, for the past almost 2 years, I haven’t returned to a normal menstrual cycle.
I am beginning to have serious concerns about my health and fertility.
Along with this, the inflammation that built up in my body has led to me having a congested nose for a whole year straight.
After going through this completely unnecessary experience, I’ve felt angry at the pressure everyone put on me to basically hurt my body. I would have preferred to have just gotten Covid, building an immunity to it that way. I got Covid anyway, in April 2022, despite the vaccine.
I think New Zealand’s government could have invested more money and time into the vaccine being tested, listened to the feedback coming from the people they were supposed to be protecting, and refrained from pushing people who didn’t want to have their health compromised out of society. Finally, angry about how the government and its ministries and mandates compromised how freely I could talk to people and find the information I needed.
Rachel & Nechama