The Te Whatu Ora worker charged by police over illegally accessing vaccine-related information on work databases has detailed his arrest – and his intention behind the leak – in an interview with prominent US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Barry Young, sometimes also known as Winston Smith, was interviewed on Jones’ conspiracy website Infowars.

Infowars filed for bankruptcy protection last year after Jones lost high-profile court cases for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre had been a “hoax”. The massacre saw the death of 26 people, including 20 children, in Connecticut.

Jones’ defamation defeats saw him ordered to pay $2.42b in damages, including to victims’ families and an FBI agent.

Websites in the United States and New Zealand have picked up the data and claimed the Covid-19 vaccination caused large numbers of deaths. There have been four deaths possibly linked to adverse reactions following Covid-19 vaccination in Aotearoa to date.

Infowars’ interest in the New Zealand data leak has seen its coverage position Young as a “whistleblower”. Kiwi conspiracy theorist Liz Gunn also been given prominence in the coverage.

It appears the interview between Jones and Young went live on Wednesday (NZT). The conspiracy website touted it as a “world exclusive” and Young’s “first major interview” after the incident which health officials have described as a “gross breach of trust” and an apparent attempt to “spread misinformation”.

Since the initial release of the data on November 30, Te Whatu Ora has filed a police complaint and Young was arrested on Sunday.

He’s since appeared in court, charged with dishonestly accessing a computer, where he entered no plea.

Judge Andrew Nicholls​ heard a bail application, and Young – who has appeared in videos with anti-vaccination campaigner Gunn to speak about the data – was denied bail until 1pm on Tuesday.

Te Whatu Ora earlier advised an employment investigation is underway and the person was “no longer at work”.

On Sunday, the health agency said: “What this individual is trying to claim about vaccines is completely wrong and ill-informed and their comments demonstrate this. The person has no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge and appears to be trying to spread misinformation”.

A LinkedIn page under the name of Barry Young states he has been employed at the government health agency as a senior database administrator since 2018.

In the Infowars interview, Young said he’d offered information to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who he’d “tried desperately” to reach over a couple of days.

Young said he and Gunn had phoned Peters “constantly” – given he campaigned on the promise to hold inquiries about vaccine mandates – but those calls “got nowhere”.

“I was saying I will give you this data, I will work with you, I will make you look like the greatest hero in New Zealand history, it’s there for you, Winston Peters, it’s there for you,” Young said.

He’d had “radio silence” in response.

”We tried so hard to reach him and give him this data and tell him please investigate this, we need to know what’s going on,” Young said.

In the interview, Young said he sent an email outlining that he was a database administrator who worked for the Ministry of Health, and “implemented” the database which he said had “massive red flag safety signals” in it.

Young claimed he sent this email to members of the executive leadership team, and sent another to “all members of parliament”.

Winston Peters and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) have been approached for comment regarding what communication they received, and what action was taken.

Peters’ office declined comment when approached by Stuff.

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti confirmed an email was sent last Thursday at 10.08am to a range of MPs and Ministers. Within the hour it had been sent to Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora), “who activated a response”.

“Health New Zealand have continued to update the Minister of Health and his office on the steps being taken and as more information has become available,” he said.

Reti said the health agency is working closely with other authorities, including police and the National Cyber Security Centre, and has kept the Office of the Privacy Commissioner informed.

“While this is an operational and staffing matter for Health New Zealand, any misuse of data is extremely concerning. As Minister of Health, I have made my expectations clear that it must be treated very seriously and with urgency.

“The matter is in the hands of the police now, and it’s not appropriate for me to comment further in relation to that.”

Young’s interview went on to describe being “locked out of the system”, and having the police turn up at his home.

Young called his arrest “off the charts” and likened it to the Gestapo, the secret police force of Nazi Germany which perpetrated crimes including the Holocaust.

Young said eight armed police were at his property, put him in handcuffs and took him to a police station.

In the interview with Jones, Young said he is not an anti-vaxxer, but wanted a “fair, open and honest” inquiry.

The data itself is subject to a non-publication order.

However, experts who have seen the data earlier told The Post that the situation is an example of misappropriating numbers in order to support an agenda.

“This is quite classic,” vaccine safety expert and Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Haris said.

“This is this is what people who are in this game do all the time. They take people who’ve had an event [like] an illness or death, and they attribute it to exposure to a vaccine.

“If you go out and you vaccinate 90% of the population. Of course, people are going to continue to die as per normal. We saw an increase in mortality at the increase of Covid outbreaks.”

Mathematician Professor Michael Plank told The Post the data “looks like it’s been picked to tell a certain story”.

“If you look at the crude number of deaths, yes, that has gone up a little bit since before the pandemic. But if you actually account for the fact that the population is larger and older now … that age, standardised mortality rate is actually lower now than before the pandemic.”

Te Whatu Ora stated there is “no evidence whatsoever” that vaccination is responsible for excess mortality in New Zealand.