Health worker has been making claims about vaccine safety for years
Wednesday, 6 December 2023
The public servant facing charges over health data theft has been spreading misinformation online about vaccine safety and berating politicians for years, while employed by Te Whatu Ora.
Barry Young, 56, appeared in Wellington District Court on Monday charged with dishonestly accessing databases belonging to his employer, which runs the country’s hospitals. He was released on bail on Tuesday and is due back in court on December 18.
The arrest followed Young’s appearance in a video posted online last Thursday with Liz Gunn – a former broadcaster and would-be politician now accused of spreading conspiracy theories.
Both spent an hour going through the data, which is subject to a non-publication order, drawing conclusions about vaccine safety. Their claims have been thoroughly debunked by experts in vaccine safety, data analyses and Covid-19.
But while the data download was new, Young was making comments on LinkedIn – a public forum – questioning the use of vaccine mandates and alleging the Government lied about vaccine safety as far back as 2021.
Under a post two years ago about a French restaurant owner rejecting Covid vaccine passports he wrote: “Ooooh normal people going to a restaurant without fear or discrimination! If your [sic] frightened of the way life was before 2020 go and get jabbed a million times and live in fear in your little self isolating groups with 3 masks on in your cold dark hostile world. Living in fear is not living.”
It is understood Young worked for the Ministry of Health at the time, as a database administrator, and transferred to Te Whatu Ora when the new entity was established through the health reforms in 2022. His Linkedin page states he still works at the ministry, as well as BNZ.
The online posts also talk about the World Economic Forum, cryptocurrency and the alleged collapse of the dollar.
Young also goes by the name Winston Smith – the same name as the main character in George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
He labelled former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern “a disgusting human being” three weeks ago, and her successor, Labour leader Chris Hipkins, “the scum of the Earth” in a post last week.
He also commented on a post last week featuring former US President Barack Obama and Dr Anthony Fauci, who led the US Covid response, suggesting they wear “sinister masks and cloaks like eyes wide shut”.
According to the Companies Office, he has been the sole director and shareholder of a company Forever Young Ltd, established in 2005 but no information exists about what the company does.
The number and email listed for the company were both inactive. Calls to Young’s house went to voicemail and he did not respond to messages to his LinkedIn page.
The Post visited his listed address on Wednesday, but no-one answered the door. Curtains were closed and the door was bolted on the outside and cement covered what appeared to be an old cat door. A neighbour said Young wasn’t home.
His LinkedIn page states he has a computer science degree from Northumbria University from the early 1990s. He also told Gunn he had a science degree. He has no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge.
Te Whatu Ora was shown the posts and declined to comment on whether it knew about this activity prior to last week, and if so if any action was taken. The Post also asked how long the employment investigation might take, whether Young might still have access to Ministry of Health systems and whether any other staff were being investigated in relation to the data breach.
It declined to answer these questions, providing a statement to say: “We are in the response stage right now and conducting a very detailed analysis of the data that was released. This investigation is ongoing, and we will provide an update as soon as possible.”
Young remains on staff at the Crown entity while an employment investigation is under way, but his access to systems was revoked last Thursday after Te Whatu Ora became aware he allegedly downloaded a large amount of information related to vaccines.
It is understood Health Minister Dr Shane Reti was made aware of the incident on Friday. His office declined to confirm this, but provided a comment from Reti to say he was briefed by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand’s chief executive Margie Apa and her senior leaders last weekend.
“While this is an operational and staffing matter for Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, it is extremely concerning and I have made my expectations clear that it must be treated very seriously,” Reti’s statement said.
“The security of health data is of utmost importance. I have requested reassurance around the robustness of the health data protection services, and Te Whatu Ora will report back to me on the results of their investigation. Any suggestion that health data is being misused or misinterpreted on this scale is extremely concerning.”
Young had detailed specific vaccine providers in his claims and Reti, himself a physician, said he had specifically requested support be made available to those named.
“I am reassured by experts confirming that there is no evidence supporting the allegations that have been made,” Reti said.
The office for Labour’s health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall has not responded to a request for comment.