Dear Ministry of Health,

I am aware of an OIA Request made on 9 Nov 2021, requesting the following information:

“What are the weekly age specific mortality rates by vaccination status (with respect to COVID-19 vaccines) for all deaths in New Zealand per 100,000 people for 2021?

The following categories of vaccination status are of interest:
- unvaccinated
- within 21 days of first dose
- 21 days or more after first dose
- second dose”

I can see that The Ministry of Health has responded to that request, citing section 18(g) of the Official Information Act 1982, claiming that the Ministry does not hold the information in this way and is not required to generate it.

As a point of reference, this type of information, from the UK, has been made publicly available by the UK's Office for National Statistics.

I am following up to seek this data from The Ministry of Health.

* Is The Ministry of Health aware of any persons, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, organisations, bodies, or individuals, whether or not based in New Zealand, whether or not subject to OIA Requests, which may have this data?

* Has The Ministry of Health considered maintaining this data? If The Ministry of Health has considered maintaining this data, why has it chosen not to? If The Ministry of Health has not considered maintaining this data, why has that not been considered?

* How can The Ministry of Health serve its purpose and role of promoting and protecting the interests of public health during this pandemic if this type of data is not maintained? Does The Ministry of Health not consider this type of data important for making evidence-based public health recommendations?

* How can The Ministry of Health ensure that inoculations are "safe" and "effective" in New Zealand, if this type of data is not maintained? What other data is maintained by The Ministry of Health that can serve a purpose comparable to, or better than, this data? If The Ministry of Health maintains data that can serve a purpose comparable to, or better than this data, please provide such data.

* What justification does The Ministry of Health have for not maintaining this data, after these inoculations have been used in New Zealand for almost a year? On what basis does The Ministry of Health consider this data to be not worth maintaining? Does The Ministry of Health assert that not maintaining this data somehow benefits public health?

* Are there any influences whatsoever which have deterred The Ministry of Health from maintaining this data? If so, what are those influences?

* Is it correct or incorrect that such data should be reasonably cheap and easy to compile and maintain by The Ministry of Health, using its own data and/or Department of Internal Affairs data?

Thank you,
ASE