133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
16 March 2023
J Bruning
By email: [FYI request #21987 email]
Ref:
H2023021279
Tēnā koe J
Partial/Transfer of your request for official information Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to Manatū Hauora
(the Ministry of Health) on 3 March 2023. You requested:
“a) Medsafe safe and effective reports and statements prior to March 31, 2021. Please
provide copies of briefings, submissions, aide memoire or advice where Medsafe states
that the Comirnaty BNT162b2 product is safe and effective prior to March 31, 2021.
b) Please supply risk-benefit notes and reports produced by Medsafe for presentation to
the 109th Meeting of the Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC).
c) Re: Benefit-risk reports produced after provisional consent granted, and during the
staged rollout. Please supply report numbers and dates of all benefit-risk reports
published by the Ministry of Health after provisional consent was granted, to support the
staged rollout to Tiers 2, 3 and 4 of the population as per the COVID-19 Vaccine and
Immunisation Programme (and the Sequencing Framework)(1) and ensure that the
response was proportionate to health risk, that respected individuals and was not
undertaken in an arbitrary manner.
d) Re: Staged rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccine and Immunisation Programme and the
Sequencing Framework. Please supply a list of all briefings, submissions, aide memoire,
or advice provided by the Ministry to the Hon Chris Hipkins and Director General Ashley
Bloomfield, from 1 October 2020-1 January 2021 including the dates and title of each
document. Information required is in relation to scheduling of the staged rollout to all of the
COVID-19 Vaccine and Immunisation Programme and the Sequencing Framework
overseen by Hipkins and Bloomfield.(2)”
Manatū Hauora does not hold any information relating to part D of your request; however, I
have been advised that this information is more closely connections to the functions of Te
Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand. For this reason, I have decided to transfer this part of your
request to Te Whatu Ora under section 14(b)(i) of the Act. You can expect a response from Te
Whatu Ora in due course.
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.
Nāku noa, na
Jan Torres
Acting Manager, OIA Services
Government and Executive Services | Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
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