133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
12 April 2024
Erika Whittome
[email address]
[email address]
[email address]
[email address] [email address]
[email address]
Request to prioritise requests for official information
I refer to your requests under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to Manatū Hauora (the
Ministry of Health).
Manatū Hauora responds to all official information requests made in good faith in accordance
with the requirements of the Act. Our organisation values the importance of transparency and
accountability and remain committed to fulfilling our obligations under the Act.
According to our records, you currently have six active requests, all of which were submitted
within a short period of time. You will appreciate that considerable resources, often from the
same area within the Ministry, are required to respond to your range of requests.
For the following requests, we are asking you to prioritise which are of most interest to you
and/or narrow the scope of your requests. This will allow us to reasonably respond to you
without placing an unreasonable degree of strain on the teams and interfering with the day-to-
day workings of the Ministry.
Please note, the Ministry will be considering charging you in line with our charging policy,
extending the time to respond to your requests, or refusing your requests in accordance with
section 18(f) of the Act. The Ministry’s charging policy can be found here:
www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/oia-charging-policy.pdf
The requests we are asking you to prioritise are outlined in Appendix 1.
We appreciate your understanding during this period. If you have any queries or require further
clarification, please do not hesitate to contact
us ([email address]).
Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Office of the Ombudsman to review
this decision.
Nāku noa, nā
Jan Torres
Manager, OIA Services
Government and Executive Services | Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
Appendix 1 – List of official information requests for consideration
#
Reference #
Requested information
Would you please supply the information in this obligation #54 for the
provisionally approved product, Comirnaty. I will copy and paste the
condition:
54. Provide any reports on efficacy including asymptomatic infection in
the vaccinated group, vaccine failure, immunogenicity, efficacy in
population subgroups and results from post-marketing studies, within
five working days of these being produced.
1 When did the Medafe quit using Salesforce to store adverse event
reports ?
2 How much were the annual licensing fees for Salesforce for medsafe
or the ministry of health for this safety monitor report from safesforce?
3 Did the ministry of health join or apply to join ICH? (
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F
www.ich.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Coiagr%40health.govt.nz%7Ca63
9abb590c44a03055d08dc4b67077c%7C23cec7246d204bd19fe9dc444
7edd1fa%7C0%7C0%7C638468153084373165%7CUnknown%7CTW
1
H2024038268
FpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1ha
WwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rNxi3zgwx%2BrA
RLEe7wUbUVO0Trt7L5El04n%2FsKMKGqQ%3D&reserved=0) If so,
please share the minutes for this decision to join?
4 Please share the procurement documents for agreeing to deploy an
E2B system for immunization and safety data?
5 Please share the annual software licensing costs for this new E2B
syatem.
6 Please share which vendor has supplied it?
7 Is this E2B data housed on NZ soil in NZ data centers? If not, where
please?
8 How is the functionality of the E2B data format for “clinical safety data
management” appropriate for the New Zealand population who are not
in a clinical setting at all?
9 Please supply the RFP for this procurement of a new system to store
immunization and safety/pharmocovilligance data
What is the criteria is for publishing OIA responses on the ministry’s
website? What is the criteria for this publishing OIA on the ministry’s
website in relation to requests around Covid 19, vaccination and health
outcomes as a result of vaccination? Please supply any minutes,
2
H2024038269
emails, memos etc around the making of this criteria and decisions to
publish or not to publish a response to an OIA on
https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-
releases/responses-official-information-act-requests.
1. I am requesting the information on how the medsafe safety data
sheet info was considered and modified into the MoH's advice on their
website with no safety or efficacy statements regarding children. Kindly
supply all the minutes, memos and correspondence for publishing the
ministry of health's advice for this product for children.
3
H2024038488
2.The same goes for pregnant women. Kindly supply all the minutes,
memos and correspondence for publishing the ministry of health's
advice for this product for pregnant women after the medsafe safety
datasheet declares a distinct lack of human testing, safety or efficacy
data.
Would you please provide all the information related to the procurement
4
H2024038982
of COVID-19 Test kits in 2017?
The product is described as :
Page 2 of 3
#
Reference #
Requested information
COVID-19 Test kits:: Diagnostic reagents based on polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) nucleic acid test.
Category: COVID-19 Test kits/ Instruments, apparatus used in
Diagnostic Testing
The World Integrated Trade Solution reports that New Zealand imported
USD73,293.40 of such COVID-19 test kits in 2017:
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F
web.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20200906005700if_%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2
Fwits.worldbank.org%2Ftrade%2Fcomtrade%2Fen%2Fcountry%2FALL
%2Fyear%2F2017%2Ftradeflow%2FImports%2Fpartner%2FWLD%2F
nomen%2Fh5%2Fproduct%2F382200&data=05%7C02%7Coiagr%40h
ealth.govt.nz%7Cac82a07a2a4842a612a308dc54c813c4%7C23cec72
46d204bd19fe9dc4447edd1fa%7C0%7C0%7C638478465515545341%
7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2l
uMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdat
a=y75zHdbhgKPi3ajX5IpIBoNEEbEMQyfcJ187xV5Uxc4%3D&reserved
=0
Kindly provide all the memos, correspondence and procurement
documents for the decision to purchase these Covid-19 PCR test kits in
2017.
1 What was the percentage of hospital
Occupancy for respiratory diseases in the years 2020, 2021, 2022 and
5
H2024039058
2023?
2 For those who died of Covid or with covid what was the average age
of death for these deaths?
Please would you share further information on these fines from the
MoH.
1. Who exactly issued these fines?
6
H2024039112
2. What is the authority and jurisdiction to issue these fines?
3. Where is the delegation? I do not see any gazzetted on the New
Zealand Gazette, but I may be missing something.
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