133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
14 June 2023
Al
By email: [FYI request #22821 email]
Ref:
H2023025401
Tēnā koe Al
Response to 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 16 May 2023 for:
“I'd like to request any email communications or meetings (and details if meetings happened
that may have been captured such as agenda, follow up and any transcripts if it was a
Teams meeting) between the Ministry of Health communications teams and/or teams
association with the Covid vaccination program, on the subject of mis or disinformation
around Covid and Covid vaccines.
To support the scope I'd like to request the above for the time frame between 1st of June
2021 to the 1st of February 2022 with media organisations, Stuff and NZ Herald.
I'd like to request any email communications or meetings (and details if meetings happened
that may have been captured such as agenda, follow up and any transcripts if it was a
Teams meeting) between the Ministry of Health communications teams and/or teams
association with the Covid vaccination program, on the subject of mis or disinformation
around Covid and Covid vaccines. To support the scope I'd like to request the above for the time frame between 1st of June
2021 to the 1st of February 2022 with media organisations, Stuff and NZ Herald.”
On 23 and 25 May 2023, Manatū Hauora contacted you in accordance with section 18(B) of the
Act to refine your request. You were advised that the current scope of your request is for a large
volume of information and may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act unless a refinement is
made.
A refinement was sought as there were approximately 500 individuals who worked at Manatū
Hauora during the time period requested who may have been involved in discussions about the
COVID-19 vaccine.
On 24 May 2023, you responded with:
“Despite my best attempts to limit the scope to a specific timeframe, with specific
organisations and on a specific topic you've suggested further I limit the request to
correspondence between senior members of the media teams within Manatû Hauora and the
National Immunisation Programme within a shorter time period. I
think the request is well constrained as it is. How would we both have confidence that senior
media team members are the only ones who have contact with those organisations during
the specified time period on the specified topic?”
In light of your response, I have interpreted your request as being meetings between the Manatū
Hauora Communications Team and teams in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme on the
subject of mis- and disinformation on COVID vaccines. I can confirm that there were no meetings
held between these Ministry teams during the requested time period on that specific topic.
Therefore, your request is refused under section 18(e) of the Act.
As signalled above, there were approximately 500 individuals who worked at Manatū Hauora
during the time period who may have been involved in discussions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Further, there were approximately 40 staff members in the Manatū Hauora Media and
Communications teams that may have discussed mis-information and dis-information related to the
COVID vaccine; however, there were no meetings held specifically on the subject.
Regarding the second part of your request, I have interpreted this as referring to meetings between
the Manatū Hauora Communications Team, the teams in the COVID-19 Vaccine Programme, and
media organisations Stuff and the NZ Herald between 1 June 2021 to 1 February 2022. By way of
context, the Manatū Hauora Media Team received an average of one email per minute from media
organisations, responded to over 5,000 media enquiries, published nearly 400 media releases and
prepared for 97 press conferences during this time period. I can confirm that there is no record of
any meetings held between Manatū Hauora and these groups regarding mis- and dis-information.
Therefore, this part of your request is also refused under section 18(e) of the Act.
Please note Manatū Hauora has released a significant amount of information relating to mis- and
disinformation, which you may find useful:
• Response to OIA H202302208104:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/19329/response/75703/attach/7/H202208104%20Response.pdf
• Response to OIA H2022015923:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/20988/response/79851/attach/4/H2022015923%20Response.pdf
• Response to OIA H2022015932:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/20989/response/79850/attach/4/H2022015932%20Response.pdf
• Response to OIA H2022018178:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/21344-dart-communications-
mentioning-the-bfd
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this decision, please feel free to
contact the OIA Services Team on
[email address]. 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.
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Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Manatū Hauora website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-
official-information-act-requests. Nāku noa, nā
Sarah Turner
Deputy Director-General
Government and Executive Services | Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
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