133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
10 December 2021
Mathew Ultee
By email: [FYI request #17713 email]
Ref:
H202116914
Tēnā koe Mathew
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 30 November
2021 for information around COVID-19, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, vaccinations,
alternative treatments, ventilators, camembert cheese and related information. Rather than
repeat your request verbatim, I have attached it as Appendix 1.
While the law allows New Zealanders to request official information from Ministers and
government agencies, there is no requirement under the Act for the Ministry to create new
information, compile information it does not hold, provide or prove an opinion or respond to
hypothetical questions. Many of your questions – which are essentially a form of cross-
examination – appear to be an attempt to engage in a debate about the Government’s response
to the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccination programme rather than a request for information
under the Act. The Act does support requests where an opinion, comment, hypothetical
statement or leading question is put to the Ministry for response, couched as a request for
information. Therefore, your request is refused under section 18(g) on the grounds that the
information is not held by the Ministry.
However, since the global pandemic began, the Ministry and other government agencies have
proactively published a significant amount of information about COVID-19 that would answer
many of your questions. I want to draw your attention to the following points:
• Comprehensive information about New Zealand’s COVID-19 response, including
vaccination, alert levels, overseas travel and departure tests, and proactively released
material received by the Minister for COVID-19 Response Hon Chris Hipkins. All this
information is available on the
Unite against COVID-19 website at:
www.covid19.govt.nz.
• The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is the lead agency for the All-of-
Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has published information about
its work, including Cabinet papers at:
https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/covid-19-
group.
• COVID-19 case numbers are published daily by the
Institute of Environmental Science
and Research (ESR) at
: https://nzcoviddashboard.esr.cri.nz/#!/ ESR has also published
a wide range of other information about the SARs CoV-2 virus and its response work at:
www.esr.cri.nz/our-expertise/covid-19-response/.
• The Ministry also publishes
COVID-19 case data at www.health.govt.nz/our-
work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-
statistics/covid-19-current-cases, COVID-19 Situation Reports at
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/general-information-
releases/covid-19-situation-reports-january-november-2020 and
COVID-19 vaccination
data at
www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-
coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data.
• New Zealand’s Medicines and Medical Devices Authority, Medsafe, has published a
range of information on the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, including safety reports for
Adverse Events Following Immunisation at:
www.medsafe.govt.nz/index.asp.
• Medsafe has also published information about thrombosis at
www.medsafe.govt.nz/Consumers/educational-material/Thrombosis-with-
Thrombocytopenia-Syndrome.pdf, vaccination and pregnancy at
www.medsafe.govt.nz/safety/Alerts/covid-19-vaccination-in-pregnancy.asp, and
myocarditis and pericarditis at
www.medsafe.govt.nz/safety/Alerts/comirnaty-
myocarditis-alert.htm amongst a range of other topics.
• The Ministry has published responses to requests under the Act, which cover many of
the issues you have raised, including information on PCR testing and the isolation of the
COVID-19 virus at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-
official-information-act-requests and particularly the response to questions 14, 15, 16
and 17 of this response:
www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/information-
release/h202111151_response.pdf
• The Ministry also publishes information on PCR testing at:
www.health.govt.nz/our-
work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-
public/assessment-and-testing-covid-19/how-covid-19-testing-works.
• Additionally, a range of peer reviewed scientific research about the COVID-19 virus has
been published on
PubMed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the
National Institutes of Health in the United States at:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
• The Ministry has published a review on a range of scientific information on COVID-19-
related topics at:
www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-
coronavirus/covid-19-resources-and-tools/covid-19-science-news. This includes
information about therapeutic treatments for COVID-19 that have been approved and
those (e.g., ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) are unsupported by scientific evidence:
www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/csu_09_july_2021_covid-
19_pharmaceutical_treatments.pdf
• The Ministry website provides the Immunisation Handbook 2020 and under chapter 5,
provides a range of information and references to scientific literature about COVID-19
and COVID-19 vaccines. This is available at:
www.health.govt.nz/our-
work/immunisation-handbook-2020/5-coronavirus-disease-covid-19.
Please note, information relating to camembert cheese may be held by the Ministry for Primary
Industries (MPI). For further information, you may wish to could contact MPI directly.
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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 of Health website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases. Nāku noa, nā
Jan Torres
Acting Manager, OIA Services
Office of the Director-General
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