133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
22 May 2025
Erika Whit ome
By email: [FYI request #30530 email]
Ref:
H2025063953
Tēnā koe Erika
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to the Ministry of
Health – Manatū Hauora (the Ministry) on 25 March 2025 for information regarding Airfinity. You
requested:
According to another OIA: " The Public Health Agency has contracted with Airfinity, an
international organisation to provide weekly presentations and bi-weekly reports on
vaccine effectiveness and safety."
Would you kindly share:
1. the bi-reports and presentations from Airfinity since its engagement from 2020 onwards
2. the contract with Airfinity
On 23 April 2025, the Ministry contacted you to refine the scope of your request in accordance
with section 18B of the Act as your request, specifically part 1, was for a very large volume of
information. The Ministry noted your request may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act, as
the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
On 23 April 2025, you refined the scope of your request to:
I can narrow the scope to be just the Comirnaty product and from 1 September 2020 until
31 December 2021
The reports and presentations from Airfinity, and a copy of the contract with Airfinity are withheld
in full under section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the Act, where its release would likely unreasonably prejudice
the commercial position of the person who supplied the information. This would include
methodologies, proprietary modelling techniques, and curated data sources, which would
prejudice Airfinity’s commercial position.
I have considered the countervailing public interest in release in making this decision and
consider that it does not outweigh the need to withhold at this time. The Ministry understands
there is a high level of public interest in how public money is spent. In order to meet the public
interest and provide further information to satisfy your request, the Ministry is providing a
summary of the nature of these reports provided by Airfinity.
Airfinity is a science and analytics company, which offered a health analytics and intelligence
platform predominantly dedicated to COVID-19. During the pandemic, Airfinity provided an
online science monitoring, tracking and analysis service to the Ministry. This included global
coverage and up-to-date information on COVID-19 related topics, such as vaccines,
therapeutics, diagnostics, variants and macro-economic related risks.
Part of the service provided to the Ministry included bi-weekly reports; one provided a global
intelligence report looking at wider trends related to COVID-19, with the second report tailored
to assess trends within New Zealand. The Ministry was subscribed to this service from May
2021 until June 2023. As noted, these reports would provide the Ministry with the most up to
date intelligence and analysis on COVID-19; such as vaccine roll out and efficacy, trends in
developing variants and the evolving scientific understanding of COVID-19 throughout the
pandemic.
Some of the information provided through these reports allowed the Ministry to support the
Government through the provision of up-to-date analysis and statistics to inform policy making,
the allocation of resources to support New Zealand through the global pandemic and answer
questions from the public. All the information provided by Airfinity which was used as part of the
Ministry’s scientific advice and recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines have been
incorporated within the COVID-19 Vaccine and Technical Advisory Group memos. These are
publicly available at:
www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/corporate-information/about-us/expert-groups/covid-19-vaccine-
technical-advisory-group-cv-tag
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.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-official-
information-act-requests.
Nāku noa, nā
Dr Kristie Carter
Group Manager, Intelligence Surveil ance & Knowledge
Public Health Agency | Te Pou Hauora Tūmatanui
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