there’s a word for this sort of misinformation about vaccines

A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read the relevant policies & exclusions and were pretty sure the post was incorrect. (My friend said he was blown away by the number of commenters who clearly hadn’t bothered to do even a rudimentary fact-checking exercise.)

Here’s what SCLHI has to say on the issue of insurance cover & getting a vaccine against covid-19. I’ve used bold font to highlight the key comment, but there is so much wrong in what’s being claimed in that FB post.

Southern Cross follows the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and MedSafe on the management of COVID-19, and the utilisation of any vaccinations.  

We would like to reassure our Health Insurance policyholders that your plans will still be valid and are in no way impacted if you receive a MedSafe approved COVID-19 vaccine.

In New Zealand, acute care is provided by the public health system so if treatment is needed urgently after receiving a vaccine, you should go directly to the Accident and Emergency unit at your nearest public hospital.

ACC provides treatment and support as required to people if they have an adverse reaction to any vaccine if their criteria for treatment injury is met. This is why vaccine-related treatment injury is a standard exclusion in our Health Insurance plans.

As is current practice, if you develop symptoms in the future that you believe are clearly caused by the COVID-19 vaccine and require treatment, you can lodge a claim with ACC.

There’s a word for the sort of deliberate misinformation being shared in the screenshot below; the page owner should know better. I’d like to think that the company will take action on it.

¹ And for this I am thankful, given that I was blocked after pointing out the inaccuracy of claims in a different post² on that page.

² Which I should also write about some time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “there’s a word for this sort of misinformation about vaccines”

  • Dayle Matthews says:

    Interesting – great to have some actual debate, however heated, instead of “trust me I know what I’m doing”. However I don’t see that any of the responses address the issue of Southern Cross Life Insurance. Not saying they are wrong – just that ACC has nothing to do with Southern Cross Life Insurance – does it?? Would have been good if the actual statement had been addressed.

    • SSHI says – and I’ve used bold font to emphasise it – that, contrary to antivax claims, getting a covid-19 vaccine has no impact on someone’s insurance policy. Plus they point out something that has always been the case: that for suspected harm from a vaccine, the individual concerned has always had to go to ACC, not the insurer.

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