Today, the group are returning for a judicial review into the case with a statement from The Hood – a group which backs the parents – saying they intend to "challenge" the Government as Covid-19 is not a risk for children and healthy adults, so no vaccine is necessary.
Lawyer David Jones QC represents the group, who had a number of supporters gathered outside the High Court at Wellington this morning.
"When one has the government bodies who are charged with making decisions that can affect young people, we have a situation where that must be given the closest scrutiny," Jones said in his opening address.
In making his opening submissions, he claimed anything to do with children, or the potential harm of children, should be scrutinised by the highest process.
The group, who includes an electrician, two stay-at-home parents, a service assistant, a quality assurance manager, a company director, a civil engineer and an unemployed woman, all have children aged between 5 and 11.
They argue the process for the vaccine rollout for children was flawed and illegal.
At the beginning of the year, the group went to court to immediately halt the vaccine roll-out while awaiting the full judicial review that starts today and is set down for two days.
Justice Rebecca Ellis declined the group's bid for an immediate halt in February, and said there were repercussions in denying families the right to vaccinate if they choose to.
Today Jones referenced a number of medical practitioners who support the parents' view the vaccine is harmful to young children, including Robert Malone, a doctor from the United States.
Jones also spoke about the fact the vaccine doesn't stop people from contracting Covid-19, and the vaccine itself puts children at risk of potential health issues.
The group argues four key claims in their case against the vaccine including that the impact of contracting Covid-19 is nil to negligible for children, the benefits of the vaccine do not outweigh the risks in healthy children and adverse events have been recorded globally.
Experts have previously told the Herald that while most children who get Covid have only mild or no symptoms, a few can get very sick. Covid infection has also left some children with other, serious complications, including multi-inflammatory syndrome and Long Covid.
Clinical trials found the Pfizer vaccine was both safe for children and effective at stopping them from suffering severe symptoms.
Since the vaccine became available for children in January, more than half of the country's 5 to 11 year-olds have been fully vaccinated – 54.7 per cent.
Children between the ages of 0 to 9 make up 11 per cent of the total number of New Zealand's Covid-19 cases and 977 children have been hospitalised with the virus.
So far 1431 people in New Zealand have died of Covid-19.
