P McKenna
[FYI request #21710 email]
Tēnā koe P
Official information request HNZ00011430
Thank you for your request for information, which was transferred from Manatū Hauora (the Ministry of
Health) to Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand on 15 February 2023, asking for the fol owing which
has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). Please see below a response
to each part of your request.
1. Please supply the Raw numbers of hospital admissions for each AESI accessed in that study
that were recorded for the period of 3 weeks following each dose.
The total number of hospital admissions for each AESI for the period of 3 weeks fol owing each dose is the
total number of observed events in Table 2 of t
he study paper. Please see these numbers in the table below.
It is important to note that if there were multiple hospital admissions for an individual, the hospital event (or
admission) recorded closest to vaccination was included to avoid duplication (a person can be hospitalised
more than once for the same condition/event).
Data Source: The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)
Data pul : 11 November 2022
No. hospital admissions recorded in the 3 weeks (21 days) fol owing each dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty), 19 February 2021 to 10 February 2022, New Zealand
No. hospital admissions
Adverse Event
First dose
Second dose
Acute Kidney Injury
2279
2370
Acute Liver Injury
43
49
Guillain-Barré syndrome
9
≤ 6
Erythema multiforme
≤ 6
≤ 6
Herpes Zoster
38
48
Single Organ Cutaneous Vasculitis
15
11
Myo/pericarditis
112
175
Arterial Thrombosis
29
22
Cerebral Venous Thrombosis
≤ 6
≤ 6
Splanchnic Thrombosis
11
15
Venous thromboembolism
261
275
Thrombocytopenia
134
157
2. Please supply the number of hospital admissions of each AESI for the period of one year following
dose 2.
On 21 February 2023, Te Whatu Ora contacted you to refine part 2 of your request. On 25 February you
agreed to refine part 2 to the fol owing:
Please see below table with the number of hospital admissions for each AESI fol owing the second dose of
the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) recorded in a period of one year (365-day risk period),
from 19 Feb 2021 through to 19 Feb 2022.
Note: because the risk window is the same length as the study period (1 year) we only count events that
occurred in the study period and in the risk window for each person.
Data Source: The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)
Data pul : 11 November 2022
No. hospital admissions for each AESI recorded in a period of one year (365-day risk
period) fol owing the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
(Comirnaty), 19 February 2021 to 19 February 2022, New Zealand
Adverse Event
No. hospital
admissions
Acute kidney injury
19242
Acute liver injury
470
Arterial thrombosis
253
Cerebral venous thrombosis
11
Erythema multiforme
16
Guillain-Barré syndrome
34
Herpes zoster
370
Myo/pericarditis
610
Splanchnic thrombosis
104
Thrombocytopenia
1130
Single organ cutaneous vasculitis
62
Venous thromboembolism
2204
3.
Please supply the number of al hospital admissions for each AESI for the period 1 January 2021 to
31 December 2021.
Please see below the table with the number of hospital admissions for each AESI for the period 1 January
2021 to 31 December 2021. Please note that these are raw public hospital admission counts and not those
recorded in a risk period following vaccination.
Data Source: The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)
Data pul : 11 November 2022
No. hospital admissions for each AESI for the period 1 January 2021 to 31
December 2021, New Zealand
AESI
Hospital admission count
Acute Kidney Injury
58266
Acute Liver Injury
1575
Arterial Thrombosis
793
Cerebral Venous Thrombosis
49
Erythema multiforme
97
Guillain-Barre syndrome
226
Herpes Zoster
1126
Myo/pericarditis
1687
Single Organ Cutaneous Vasculitis
400
Splanchnic Thrombosis
354
Thrombocytopenia
4935
Venous thromboembolism
5741
4. Please supply the unpublished December 2021, Auckland University study titled Background rates
of adverse events of special interest (AESIs) for COVID-19 vaccination by Petousis-Harris H.P., J.
Zhao,et al. entitled: Background rates of adverse events of special interest (AESIs) for COVID-19
vaccination.
The background rate study of COVID-19 vaccine AESIs can be found
here:
www.globalvaccinedatanetwork.org/safe-project-background-rates-adverse-events-special-interest-
aesis-covid-19-vaccination. How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Te Whatu Ora may proactively release
a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and contact details, wil be
removed prior to release. The released response wil be made available on our website.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Astrid Koornneef
Interim Director, Prevention
National Public Health Service
Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Te Whatu Ora, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand