7 February 2025
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #29776 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00076470
Thank you for your email of 16 January 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for the
following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Can you please provide in a machine readable CSV/Excel file, a count of the number of
people unvaccinated against COVID19 funded by the government of NZ and those who
subsequently died of any cause - as measured by MoH record level patient or payment
databases.
OIA1a) This OIA asks for repeat run of Ticket Reference RT-670 - with a revised date
range and one age group boundary change - so that updated numbers can be made
available to the public. My understanding is that this comes from the Aotearoa
Immunisation Register (AIR).
OIA1b) For reference, a definition of the columns required are described below.
The following breakdown of each column is required:
Col1) Month of Death - from the first vaccination until the end of Sept 2024
Col2) Age Band of Patient – 0-20 inclusive, 21-40 inclusive, 41-60 inclusive, 61-80
inclusive, 81-99 inclusive, 100+ . [NOTE the small change to the 81-99, and 100+
categories] Col3) Count of people matching (when Grouping on) the above columns This OIA does not seek any personal or commercial information about patients or suppliers.
Where a cell count is less than 6 please mark as “S”. Where a cell count is truly zero please
mark this as such in the dataset.
A Reasonable OIA with Precedent: This OIA should be possible by using simple queries on
the entire datasets of COVID Vax Pay per Dose and National Minimum Dataset of Hospital
data - matched using the NHI number. This OIA does not ask for the creation of any information, just a rerun of a previous request
which aggregates a data set the MoH already collects as a normal course of its business. I am a NZ citizen, resident and taxpayer and am entitled to use the OIA. Please raise any questions ASAP and do not leave it until near the end of the 20 working
day period to respond.
Response
The requested data is attached as
Appendix One. For important information about the data,
please refer to the ‘Cover Sheet’ page of the appendix. Counts fewer than six (denoted as “<6”)
have been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act to protect privacy of individuals.
In making this decision, I have considered the public interest and determined that it does not
outweigh the need to withhold.
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, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Manager, Machinery of Government Support
National Public Health Service
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
