30 April 2026
Alison Goodwin
[FYI request #34285 email]
Tēnā koe Alison
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00202118
Thank you for your email on 30 March 2026, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for the
following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
In the 2021-2022 PVSC (Post Vaccine Symptom Check) report that is published on the
Health NZ website it says: “The information presented below is limited to those aged 18
years and older that were vaccinated with the Comirnaty COVID-19 adult vaccine and
participated in the 2021-2022 Comirnaty COVID-19 adult PVSC survey.”
Please can you clarify if vaccine recipients between ages 12 and 18 were sent text
messages for the PVSC surveys in 2021 and 2022? I appreciate that the reports say ‘the
information presented below is limited to those age 18 years and older’ but I want to
understand whether information was gathered from young people in that age range and not
reported on, or whether the information was not gathered in the first place. Please provide
the same information for 2023 and 2024.
Response
Post Vaccine Symptom Check (PVSC) surveys were limited to individuals aged 18 years and over.
People aged 12-17 years were not sent PVSC survey invitations, and no PVSC data was collected
for that age group in 2021-2024. In 2022, there was a survey dedicated to collecting information
from the guardians of 5-11-year-olds who had received the Comirnaty COVID-19 paediatric
vaccine. The results of this survey are publicly available, here:
www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/assets/Health-services-and-programmes/Immunisation/Report-2-2022-
Paediatric-PVSC-Final.pdf.
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. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Manager, Government Services
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand