A New Zealand court has directed that a child at the centre of a case involving blood transfusions from Covid-19-vaccinated donors be placed in temporary custody by health officials.
The four-month-old boy is being treated in an Auckland hospital for an urgent heart condition.
His parents had stopped the operation and asked a judge to order that he receive blood from unvaccinated donors.
The High Court, however, ruled that the operation was in the child’s “best interests.”
Justice Ian Gault ordered that the boy – identified as Baby W in court documents – be placed under the guardianship of the court “from the date of the order until completion of his surgery and post-operative recovery”.
He dismissed the parents’ request for unvaccinated blood, calling it unnecessary and impractical, and agreed with health authorities that the boy’s “survival [was] actually dependent on the application being granted”.
But he emphasised that the parents remained the boy’s primary guardians and said doctors must keep them informed at all times about his treatment and condition.
Justice Gault also rejected a request from the parents’ lawyer, Sue Grey, that a tailored donor service with blood from exclusively unvaccinated donors be established.
Ms Grey said the long-term effects of the vaccine were “untested” and accused doctors of refusing to provide an alternate donor service for ideological reasons.
But lawyer for the state blood service said the establishment of any direct donor service would have been a “slippery slope” and would “damage an excellent blood service”.
Citing evidence from New Zealand’s chief medical officer, Justice Gault ruled that there was “no scientific evidence there is any Covid-19 vaccine-related risk from blood donated” by vaccinated donors.
The case has become a vector for anti-vaccine activists in New Zealand with demonstrators – many of whom carried placards – gathering outside the court before the ruling was delivered on Wednesday.
It also emerged during the case that during a meeting with doctors at the Starship hospital in Auckland, the parents had been accompanied by a “support person” who hijacked the conference.
They said the person presented a host of unfounded conspiracy theories, and went on to claim that children were dying from transfusions at the hospital.
Addressing the demonstrators outside the court house following the ruling, former TV host and leading anti-vaccine campaigner Liz Gunn said the decision was “wrong on every level”.
Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) acknowledged that the case was a “difficult situation for all involved” but emphasised that its priority was the “the health and wellbeing” of all children in its care.