Killing our kids : Mike King apologises for nasty Bloomfield claim
Mike King. (Photo / File) Fri, 2 Jul 2021, 1:14PM
Mental health advocate Mike King has apologised for lashing out at director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, calling him a nasty little man who is killing our kids .
In a social media post this morning, King admitted he had spoken out of turn while appearing on Three s The AM Show today. This morning on the AM Show I made the comment that Dr Ashley Bloomfield was a nasty little man who was killing our kids , King said. I was very tired and emotional this morning after spending several hours in A&E with a young person who attempted suicide and I obviously wasn t thinking straight.
Emails released to
Stuff under the Official Information Act showed a battle between officials at the Ministry of Health, some who wanted the report to be stripped back to its bare essentials, and others who argued it should keep consistent with what had been in previous reports. Half a year before the report was finally released Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield approved it to be published, but his deputy Robyn Shearer delayed it further and put a “risk lens” over it. Another official noted there was no legal requirement the report be produced and suggested shortening it, while a third noted the huge amount of “data and negative statistics” which she said was presented without enough context.