Informed Consent #8 - Natural Death Rates

Annie Weston made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health

Response to this request is long overdue. By law Ministry of Health should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.

From: Annie Weston

Dear Ministry of Health,

https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...

On Medsafe’s Safety Report webpage it states that:

“By chance, some people will experience new illnesses or die from a pre-existing condition shortly after vaccination, especially if they are elderly. Therefore, part of our review process includes comparing natural death rates to observed death rates following vaccination, to determine if there are any specific trends or patterns that might indicate a vaccine safety concern.“

My question:

Can you tell me please when you classify that someone has died of Covid-19 eg: after being shot, do you also compare natural death rates eg: from the flu, to determine if there are any specific trends or patterns that might indicate there is a pandemic that warrants locking up 1.7m people for three months and counting?

Yours faithfully,

Annie Weston

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From: OIA Requests

Kia ora,

 

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OIA Services Team  

   

[4]Ministry of Health information releases  

[5]Unite against COVID-19 

 

 

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From: OIA Requests


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Kia ora Annie,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

After a person dies the certificate of cause of death is completed by the
medical practitioner or nurse practitioner who was responsible for
their care during their final illness. When a person is suspected to have
a COVID-19 infection, a laboratory test is done to confirm the presence of
the virus. When the person with a confirmed COVID 19 infection is unwell
the clinician assesses the patient’s acute condition and considers their
medical history including any chronic conditions and medications the
patient was taking before they became ill, as those will need to be
treated as well as COVID-19. 

The cause of death is determined from an assessment of the patient’s
clinical condition at the time of death. If the patient never recovered
from the acute severe respiratory syndrome caused by COVID-19 the cause of
death will be the infection from COVID-19. If any other pre-existing
conditions were considered by the clinician to have contributed to the
patient succumbing to the COVID-19 infection, then those conditions are
documented on the certificate of cause of death as other significant
conditions that contributed to the death. If the patient died from a
complication of COVID 19 infection, then the complication will be
documented as the primary cause of death, and the COVID-19 infection will
be entered as a factor giving rise to the primary cause of death. 

If a person recovers from a COVID-19 infection and then dies days or weeks
later from exacerbation of a different (pre-existing) condition, the
medical or nurse practitioner will assess the person’s clinical condition
at time of death and complete the certificate of cause of death in line
with that assessment. It is likely the acute exacerbation of the
pre-existing condition will be entered as the cause of death. If the
COVID-19 infection was thought to have contributed to the person’s
declining health from that other condition, then the COVID-19 infection
will be entered as a significant condition that contributed to the
death.  

Guidance for certifying deaths from or with COVID-19 has been on the
COVID-19 ‘Information for health practitioners’ section of the Ministry’s
website since early in the COVID-19 pandemic at: 

o [1]www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-information-health-professionals/recording-covid-19  
o [2]www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/burial-and-cremation-act-1964/completing-death-documents/covid-19-deaths.  

There are also occasions when an attending medical or nurse practitioner
is required to report a death to the coroner under the Coroners Act 2006.
There is more information about these criteria
at: [3]www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/burial-and-cremation-act-1964/referring-death-coroner 

 

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: [4][email address] or by calling 0800
802 602. 

 

Ngâ mihi  

OIA Services Team  

   

[5]Ministry of Health information releases  

[6]Unite against COVID-19 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Annie Weston <[FOI #17694 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2021 11:08
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Informed Consent #8 - Natural
Death Rates

 

Dear Ministry of Health,

[7]https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...

On Medsafe’s Safety Report webpage it states that:

“By chance, some people will experience new illnesses or die from a
pre-existing condition shortly after vaccination, especially if they are
elderly. Therefore, part of our review process includes comparing natural
death rates to observed death rates following vaccination, to determine if
there are any specific trends or patterns that might indicate a vaccine
safety concern.“

My question:

Can you tell me please when you classify that someone has died of Covid-19
eg: after being shot, do you also compare natural death rates eg: from the
flu, to determine if there are any specific trends or patterns that might
indicate there is a pandemic that warrants locking up 1.7m people for
three months and counting?

Yours faithfully,

Annie Weston

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From: Annie Weston

Dear OIA Requests,

Many thanks for your prompt reply but you haven't answered my question. My apologies for not being clear.

1) How many people on average died each year in NZ from the flu pre Covid-19 being released?

2) How many people have died in NZ from the flu since March 2020?

Yours sincerely,

Annie Weston

Link to this

From: Chris Lewis


Attachment Influenza 202109.xlsx
228K Download View as HTML


Hi Annie

 

Thank you for your request.  2018 is the most recent year for which cause
of death information is currently available.  Preliminary 2019 data should
be published in December.

 

I’ve attached a spreadsheet which has influenza deaths from 1950 to 2018. 
Please note that the 2018 data is provisional.

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]

 

 

 

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 From: Annie Weston <[FOI #17694 email]>
 Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2021 11:08
 To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
 Subject: Official Information request - Informed Consent #8 - Natural
 Death Rates

  

 Dear Ministry of Health,

 [7][7]https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...

 On Medsafe’s Safety Report webpage it states that:

 “By chance, some people will experience new illnesses or die from a
 pre-existing condition shortly after vaccination, especially if they are
 elderly. Therefore, part of our review process includes comparing natural
 death rates to observed death rates following vaccination, to determine
if
 there are any specific trends or patterns that might indicate a vaccine
 safety concern.“

 My question:

 Can you tell me please when you classify that someone has died of
Covid-19
 eg: after being shot, do you also compare natural death rates eg: from
the
 flu, to determine if there are any specific trends or patterns that might
 indicate there is a pandemic that warrants locking up 1.7m people for
 three months and counting?

 Yours faithfully,

 Annie Weston

 -------------------------------------------------------------------

 This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

 Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
 [FOI #17694 email]

 Is [Ministry of Health request email] the wrong address for Official
Information requests
 to Ministry of Health? If so, please contact us using this form:
 [8][8]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:
 [9][9]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.
 
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victor left an annotation ()

https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...

'Data for expected death rates was obtained from the AESI background rate (SAFE) study provided by the University of Auckland. The age-specific background rates used are the average from 2008-2019'

Information needed on the what and who is in the below text.

https://www.globalvaccinedatanetwork.org...

Work is under way at the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care within the University of Auckland to gather baseline data on medical events that have potential to be associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

Defining these potential Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI) and calculating the rate at which they have occurred in New Zealand in the past are prerequisites for monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

If these adverse events occur after a vaccine is introduced to the population, New Zealand will have a frame of reference with which to compare the rates of these events to assess if there is a safety concern or not. 

The Brighton Collaboration has already defined 22 AESI 

and Assoc. Prof. Helen Petousis-Harris and her team are currently gathering data to calculate the background rates of these events, with funding provided by the New Zealand

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From: Annie Weston

Dear Chris Lewis,

Thank you for the information although it falls short by four years if 2018 is provisional only.

Can you please explain how you are able to attribute a death to Covid-19 within hours but are unable to ascertain flu death data for the last three years or determine what 102 people died from after taking the Pfizer experimental gene therapy since February 2021.

Yours sincerely,

Annie Weston

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Mr Rodgers left an annotation ()

You do yourself no favours proselytizing like this — "Pfizer experimental gene therapy".

If you are going to play in the bureaucrat's sandpit, you need to stick to the bureaucrat's terms. MoH can simply say "Pfizer is not carrying out any gene therapy experiments in NZ so there can be no deaths attributed to it. Thank you and have a nice day"

Link to this

From: Chris Lewis

Hi Annie

I'm not involved with the Covid-19 reporting but my understanding is that new cases/hospitalisations/deaths are reported directly to those managing the response daily. This was set up due to the necessity of knowing this information immediately, whereas the normal mechanisms for reporting hospitalisations/deaths to the Ministry wouldn't be fast enough (i.e. DHB hospitalisations should be reported within 21 days of the end of the month of discharge; we receive death registrations from BDM around 6-8 weeks after registration (which is supposed to happen within 10 days of the funeral)).

With the 102 deaths you refer to, I'd assume that someone has manually reviewed the available documentation.

There are approximately 34,000 deaths in New Zealand each year. Most injury deaths (approximately 1700 per year) are referred to the coroner who is responsible not only for determining the cause of death, but also for making recommendations or comments on how deaths may be prevented from occurring in similar circumstances in the future. A coroner cannot return their verdict until they are certain as to the cause of death and the circumstances surrounding the death. While the inquests for most of these deaths are completed within 12 months of the deaths some may not be completed for several years, particularly if the inquest is delayed by other official inquiries into the same death (such as for a death due to an overdose of a prescribed drug).

For each death, our mortality coders have to review all the available documentation and assign appropriate codes based on the WHO rules for Mortality coding.

We can't release a year's mortality data until we're sure that the data is representative of the true picture. And the number of outstanding coronial cases can have a significant effect on the number of deaths attributed to certain causes. With a cause like influenza, which doesn't have particularly high volumes (statistically), it only takes a few extra deaths to make a large difference to interpreting the trend data. This has been exacerbated by the particularly large coronial backlog that exists at the moment. I believe the current average time to resolve a coronial case is 540 days.

We will be publishing preliminary 2019 death data (without injury causes) in December.

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: [email address]

show quoted sections

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From: Annie Weston

Dear Chris Lewis,

Thank you for your open, honest and transparent reply.

As I’m sure you can appreciate it’s important for those coerced into taking the vaccine to be given as much information as possible before making an informed choice.

The choices we have in NZ are:

1) Take the Pfizer vaccine (or in some centres the AstraZeneca) which has a higher mortality rate (103 pax as at 06 Nov 21) than Covid-19 (43 pax as at 29 Nov 21) according to NZ Govt provided figures.

2) Refuse the vaccine, lose our jobs and the ability to provide for our family, be prohibited to partake in society and face a higher risk of suffering from a man-made disease that kills 0.5 - 0.7% of the world’s population.

I can understand the MOH needing to know Covid-19 deaths immediately but for the vaccine hesitant it’s equally important to know how many people have died in NZ due to the vaccine.

Some will say that the Govt response has lessened the effect of Covid-19 but this must be weighed up against the suicides, social cost to those living under house arrest, the refusal to allow NZ citizens to return home, and the 27,000 lost businesses.

This is especially important if the Govt’s only consideration it seems is preventing the overwhelming of their underfunded health system.

If the normal mechanisms for reporting death apply to vaccine caused deaths and they’re 3-8 weeks behind, and those deaths are normally underreported by 99% then it stands to reason that there are probably many more vaccine deaths than are currently reported on Medsafe’s webpage. And of course they’ll be subject to coronial review that could take an average of 540 days.

NZDSOS’s citizen database listed 246 vaccine induced deaths at last count.

My question please:

When will the NZ public be fully informed on the correct up-to-date number of deaths caused by the vaccine.

If the Govt is coercing people into taking a vaccine that causes more deaths than the disease they’re trying to prevent they need to give this reporting equal priority.

Yours sincerely,

Annie Weston

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