133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T +64 4 496 2000
W www.medsafe.govt.nz
2 July 2021
Chris McCashin
By email: [FYI request #15932 email]
Ref:
H202107928
Dear Chris
Response to your request for official information Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 30 June 2021
for:
“please provide the document that outlines how the Ministry of Health [the Ministry]
determines how "Deaths are unlikely to be related to the Covid-19 vaccine".
Can you also comment on what the criteria would be to determine if and when the
experimental Pfizer vaccination is deemed to be doing more damage than the Covid-19
virus based on the statistics below?
The Ministry expects healthcare professionals involved in certifying the death of a person to
follow normal processes in determining and registering the cause of death. Further information
can be found here:
www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/national-collections-and-
surveys/collections/mortality-collection. While anyone – either a healthcare professional or a member of the public – can report an
adverse reaction following vaccination (AEFI), reporting is voluntary. The form for reporting
AEFI from a COVID-19 vaccine is publicly available at:
https://report.vaccine.covid19.govt.nz/s/ If a death is reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) at the University
of Otago they make sure they have information on underlying conditions and other events near
the time of death, and correspond with the healthcare professionals involved. CARM use World
Health Organization (WHO) causality assessment criteria to determine the probability that there
was a connection between vaccination and any events occurring after. Further information can
be found here:
www.who.int/publications/m/item/WHO-causality-assessment. Determining the cause of death is the role of the coroner, should the death be referred to them.
Regarding part two of your request, while the Act enables people to request official information
from the Ministry, it only applies to information it holds. There is no obligation to compile
information it does not hold or create information in order to respond to requests, nor is the
Ministry obliged to provide or prove an opinion.
This part of your request appears to seek comment about the merits of the Ministry’s COVID-19
vaccine programme rather than a request for official information. The Act does not support
requests in which a requester states an opinion and then seeks some form of comment on it,
couched as a request for official information.
Therefore, I am refusing this part of your request under section 18(g)(i) of 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.
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:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-official-
information-act-requests. Yours sincerely
Chris James
Group Manager
Medsafe
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