5 June 2026
A Goodwin
[FYI request #34589 email]
Tēnā koe
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00203542
Thank you for your request for information, which was transferred from the Ministry of Health to
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora on 13 May 2026, asking for the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
At paragraph 320 of the Phase 2 Covid Inquiry report it is noted: 'Around November 2020,
the Ministry of Health established a workstream as part of the National Immunisation
programme, eventual y known as the Vaccine Safety Surveil ance and Research Group, to
manage and report on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.304'
Please provide agendas and minutes of meetings, memos issued, publications and reports
by, and communications to or from the Vaccine Safety Surveil ance and Research Group.
Please provide the names of members of this group.
Response
On 15 May 2026, Health NZ contacted you asking if you could refine the communications part of
your request to a more specific timeline or topic. As you have not responded, and as advised in our
email, we have proceeded to make a decision on your request as it stands.
As noted in our email, the Vaccine Safety Surveil ance and Research (VSSR) team was a team set
up within the Ministry of Health in 2020 before transferring to the National Immunisation
Programme (NIP) in Health NZ in 2022. It was initially known as Post-Event, before becoming
VSSR and eventually Vaccine Safety.
The team worked on vaccine safety research, provided safety monitoring tools and reporting, while
assisting Medsafe by monitoring adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). Their work
included the Post Vaccine Symptom Check survey, pharmacoepidemiology studies and New
Zealand based immunisation research for NIP. The team also acted as secretariat of the Covid
Vaccine Immunisation Safety Monitoring Board (CV-ISMB). VSSR was disestablished in November
2024.
Please provide… communications to or from the Vaccine Safety Surveil ance and Research
Group.
The VSSR team had a shared inbox and communicated via individual email accounts. There is a
high volume of correspondence sent and received by this team over the course of five years; all of
which would need to be manual y reviewed. Therefore, we are refusing the information in this part
under section 18(f) of the OIA, as providing it would require substantial collation and research. In
making this decision, we have considered extending the timeframe to respond, or charging, as
allowed under the OIA. However, neither of these options have been offered as we have
determined that providing this information would unreasonably interfere with the everyday functions
of the teams involved.
...agendas and minutes of meetings, memos issued, publications and reports by Vaccine
Safety Surveil ance and Research Group. Please provide the names of members of this
group.
The group, who had many members come and go, was established in 2020 and disbanded in
2024. As such, Health NZ does not hold a comprehensive list of all members of this group over this
5-year period. However, the names of many members are publicly available in the reports and
published studies.
Several reports and publications by this team are publicly available:
• A research paper on thrombotic events:
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9794399/ • A research paper on Adverse Event
s pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37556109/ • Post Vaccine Symptom Check survey reports:
www.healthnz.govt.nz/about-us/health-
data/data-sets-and-collections/immunisation-data-and-statistics/post-vaccine-symptom-
check-survey-reports
• A report on long term outcomes of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination:
www.healthnz.govt.nz/publications/long-term-outcomes-of-myocarditis-and-pericarditis-
following-vaccination-with-comirnaty
In addition, a search of our systems for “memo” or “report” has yielded more than 700 results within
the team’s folders. Rather than outright refuse the information in this part of your request, we have
identified and provided key documents within scope.
Please refer to
Appendix 1, which sets out our decision on the release of documents within
Appendix 2. We note that the post-vaccination wait times report (Document 8) was found to have
some data inconsistencies (particularly around how anaphylaxis cases were classified in CARM).
Please consider this when reviewing that report.
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
Appendix 1
Date
Title
Decision on release
22 July 2021
Memo – Myocarditis
Released in full.
13 August 2021
Memo – Comirnaty and
Some information withheld under
thrombocytopenia
section 9(2)(a) of the OIA. In making
this decision, we have considered the
public interest in release and
determined that it does not outweigh
the need to withhold.
15 December 2021 Memo – ME/CFS following
Released in full.
Comirnaty: Review of Available
Literature and Adverse Event
Reports in New Zealand.
30 May 2022
A Comparison of the risk of
Released in full.
death between Comirnaty
mRNA
vaccinated and unvaccinated
individuals with pre-existing
heart
conditions
25 July 2022
COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Released in full.
Safety Monitoring Board (CV-
ISMB) overview
19 June 2023
COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Released in full.
Safety Monitoring Board - Final
Report and
Future of the Board
23 August 2024
Difference between intradermal
Released in full.
and subcutaneous adverse
reactions following JYNNEOS
vaccination
15 July 2025
Time to onset and
Released in full.
characteristics of Brighton level
1–2 anaphylaxis
following COVID-19 vaccination
in Aotearoa New Zealand:
Implications
for post-vaccination wait times
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
