The Myocarditis/Pericarditis case statistics in the NZ population
Mark Brown made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
The request was partially successful.
From: Mark Brown
Dear Ministry of Health,
In this OIA request would you please provide:
1) The total number of people diagnosed with Myocarditis/Pericarditis each year for the past 5 years until now.
2) A break down for each year at (1) showing the count of cases in age ranges;
0-9 years
10-19 years
20-29 years
...
70-79 years
80+ years
Yours faithfully,
Mark Brown
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora,
Thank you for your Official Information Act (the Act) request. This is
an automatic reply to let you know we received it.
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. We
will endeavour to acknowledge your request as soon as possible. Further
information about COVID-19 can be found on our
website: [1]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...
In accordance with the Act, we'll let you know our decision within no more
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Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
[4]Ministry of Health information releases
[5]Unite against COVID-19
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2. http://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&a...
3. mailto:[email address]
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5. https://covid19.govt.nz/
From: Mark Brown
Dear Ministry of Health,
In addition to the request we have further questions;
3) Since 1 Jan 2020, for all Myocarditis/Pericarditis cases please provide the total count for those who had a positive Covid PCR test.
4) Since 1 Jan 2020, for all Myocarditis/Pericarditis cases please provide the total count for those whose diagnosis was attributed to a Covid infection.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Brown
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Mark,
Thank you for you email. Your request has been passed onto
the Ministry’s [1]Data Enquiries team for a response.
You can expect a response from the team in due course.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services Team
[2]Ministry of Health information releases
[3]Unite against COVID-19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Brown <[FOI #17595 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 16 November 2021 12:11
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - The Myocarditis/Pericarditis case
statistics in the NZ population
Dear Ministry of Health,
In this OIA request would you please provide:
1) The total number of people diagnosed with Myocarditis/Pericarditis each
year for the past 5 years until now.
2) A break down for each year at (1) showing the count of cases in age
ranges;
0-9 years
10-19 years
20-29 years
...
70-79 years
80+ years
Yours faithfully,
Mark Brown
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
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[FOI #17595 email]
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5. https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Mark,
Thank you for your email.
The Ministry of Health does not record this information. Therefore, your
request is refused under section 18(g) of the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act) as the information requested is not held by the Ministry
and there are no grounds for believing it is held by another agency
subject to the Act.
The other part of your request has been passed on to our data enquiries
team for a response.
Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to
review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be
contacted by email at: [1][email address] or by calling 0800
802 602.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
[2]Ministry of Health information releases
[3]Unite against COVID-19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Brown <[FOI #17595 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 16 November 2021 12:19
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Official Information request - The Myocarditis/Pericarditis
case statistics in the NZ population
Dear Ministry of Health,
In addition to the request we have further questions;
3) Since 1 Jan 2020, for all Myocarditis/Pericarditis cases please provide
the total count for those who had a positive Covid PCR test.
4) Since 1 Jan 2020, for all Myocarditis/Pericarditis cases please provide
the total count for those whose diagnosis was attributed to a Covid
infection.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Brown
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #17595 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[4]https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.
show quoted sections
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References
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3. https://covid19.govt.nz/
4. https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
From: Mark Brown
Dear OIA Requests,
We reject your claim the Ministry does not hold such data or other agency.
We know the data is available in the The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) mentioned here:
https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
Using hospital discharge codes "I40 Acute myocarditis" and "I30 Acute pericarditis".
Annual publications are made in the link below as downloadable data up to Jun 2019.
https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
So you can provide the data requested and we also need you to provide data from Jun 2019 until today.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Brown
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Mark,
Thank you for your follow up email.
NCR has data on hospitalisations. Therefore, the Ministry can identify
myocarditis and pericarditis hospitalisations. This is what is being
provided to you by our Data Enquiries team.
However, if a patient is diagnosed with COVID-19 then that is reported as
a secondary diagnosis, this does not necessarily imply that the COVID-19
caused the myocardiits/pericarditis. The data does not record what causes
a disease.
Additionally, the Ministry holds PCR test results, however this is stored
elsewhere in the Ministry. Therefore, the information you have
requested is not part of the standard reporting process, nor is it
routinely collated for our COVID-19 data reporting teams. While the OIA
allows New Zealanders to ask for information from Ministers and government
agencies, there is no requirement for agencies
to create new information in order to respond to a request. This request
is therefore refused under section 18(g) of the OIA on the grounds
that the information requested is not held.
Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to
review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be
contacted by email at: [1][email address] or by calling 0800
802 602.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
[2]www.health.govt.nz
[3]Ministry of Health information releases
[4]Unite against COVID-19
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Brown <[FOI #17595 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 17 November 2021 19:01
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Response to your correspondence 16 November 2021
Dear OIA Requests,
We reject your claim the Ministry does not hold such data or other agency.
We know the data is available in the The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)
mentioned here:
[5]https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
Using hospital discharge codes "I40 Acute myocarditis" and "I30 Acute
pericarditis".
Annual publications are made in the link below as downloadable data up to
Jun 2019.
[6]https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
So you can provide the data requested and we also need you to provide data
from Jun 2019 until today.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Brown
show quoted sections
From: Mark Brown
Dear OIA Requests,
You still have not provided the data requested about hospitalisations of myocarditis and pericarditis as you said the Data Enquires team is going to provide on 18th Nov.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Brown
From: OIA Requests
Thank you for your Official Information Act request. This is
an automatic reply to let you know we received it.
In accordance with the Act, we'll let you know our decision within no more
than 20 working days. If you'd like to calculate the timeframe, you can
use the Ombudsman's online calculator
here: [1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. This
means we may take some time in responding to your request. The Ministry
regularly updates information about the COVID-19 situation and publishes
OIA responses considered to be of public interest:
[2]https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
Please also refer to the Unite Against Covid-19 website for copies of
papers, minutes, and key advice for the decisions the Government has made
relating to COVID-19.
Sometimes we may need to clarify aspects of a request. You can expect to
hear from us soon if that is the case here.
Ngā mihi,
OIA Services
Government Services
Office of the Director-General
Ministry of Health
E: [3][email address]
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3. mailto:[email address]
From: Chris Lewis
Hi Mark
Sorry, I wrote this back in November but it got stuck in my drafts folder
and I’d thought I’d sent it already.
Thank you for your request. The Ministry doesn’t collect the number of
people diagnosed with specific conditions (with the exception of
notifiable diseases and cancer). We do collect data on what people are
hospitalized for. I have attached a spreadsheet which has publicly funded
hospital discharge numbers from Jan 2016 to Sep 2021 with a primary
diagnosis of acute myocarditis or acute pericarditis. Please note that
people hospitalized multiple times (transfers, readmissions, multiple
incidents) are counted each time.
I hope this helps. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Cheers
Chris Lewis
Information Analyst
Analytical Services, Ministry of Health
phone: +64-4-816-2869
fax: +64-4-816-2898
e-mail: [1][email address]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Brown <[2][FOI #17595 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 16 November 2021 12:11
To: OIA Requests <[3][email address]>
Subject: The Myocarditis/Pericarditis case statistics in the NZ population
Dear Ministry of Health,
In this OIA request would you please provide:
1) The total number of people diagnosed with Myocarditis/Pericarditis each
year for the past 5 years until now.
2) A break down for each year at (1) showing the count of cases in age
ranges;
0-9 years
10-19 years
20-29 years
...
70-79 years
80+ years
Yours faithfully,
Mark Brown
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[4][FOI #17595 email]
Is [5][Ministry of Health request email] the wrong address for Official Information
requests to Ministry of Health? If so, please contact us using this form:
[6]https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[7]https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.
show quoted sections
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ASE left an annotation ()
As of 1 Sep, 46% of people were jabbed, and 24% of people were "fully" jabbed.
As of 31 Sep, 64% of people were jabbed, and 38% of people were "fully" jabbed.
It's not clear if those numbers are total population, "eligible" population, or something else, but the number of people jabbed and "fully" jabbed each increased by about 50% between 1 Sep and 31 Sep.
These charts get steep as mandates loom. Coercion can do that.
Sources:
* https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/cor...
* https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/cor...
Notably, 50% of population jabbed was crossed on 5 Sep and 50% "fully" jabbed population was crossed on 14 Oct.
Considering the steepness of the curve through that period, the 2021 numbers provided by MOH can't tell us much. We really need numbers for all of 2021, not just Jan-Sep. Of all the data cut-off dates that MOH could've left in their drafts-folder, Jan-Sep is kind of suspicious. It's the subsequent months where I'd expect to see changes.
Might be time, now, to request updated data, as soon as it can be accurately compiled.
Still, Jan-Sep is 75% of the year. Assuming that these diagnoses don't have seasonal cycles, we can multiply the Jan-Sep numbers by 1.3333 to get some incomplete/naive estimates for 2021, and it's not looking good.
As of Jan-Sep, 203 pericarditis cases would project to 271 for the year, and 46 myocarditis cases would project to 61 for the year.
In a way, it's good that MOH gave this partial data. When the full 2021 data is available, we can compare cases per month Jan-Sep against cases per month Oct-Dec. Looking at the charts I cited, above, that may tell a story.
And, notice 455 cases of "Myocarditis/pericarditis" reported to CARM, as per Adverse events following immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines: Safety Report #39 – 31 December 2021 - https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...
Looking at the data released by MOH, and the "Background rate" of 931 myocarditis/pericarditis cases in that CARM report… Where did that 931 number come from??? Just me, or is that not making sense?
Anyway, this means the number of myocarditis/pericarditis cases reported to CARM (through Dec) is almost 50% higher than the *total* myocarditis/pericarditis cases we'd expect to see, based on 2016-2020 data. And that's just what's been *reported* to CARM. With so many anecdotes of doctors pursuing a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with adverse reactions to the jab, or dismissing correlations as anxiety, it seems a safe bet that the CARM data is under-reported. To paraphrase Dr Peter McCullough, with experimental treatments there's no such thing as "rare" adverse events, there's "tip of the iceberg".
Going back to the first CARM report after 31 Sep, Adverse events following immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines: Safety Report #31 – 2 October 2021 - https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf... - There are 118 *reported* cases of myocarditis/pericarditis, which is almost 50% of the 203 cases MOH is reporting in this data, to 31 Sep.
This data is telling a story. It's incomplete data telling an incomplete story, but it's not looking good. Also, the data provided by MOH is based on hospital discharges; I'm guessing that excludes deaths, which may be relevant.
Anecdotally, a cardio nurse friend told me they were seeing a spike in cardio and ICU admissions just before they were stood down, mid Nov. Cases included myocarditis, pericarditis, and thrombocytopenia, with many patients in their 20s and 30s. Apparently some of the cases were not stable enough to be in the cardio ward, and had to be transferred to ICU.
Link to this