Good afternoon Mr Redfern,

 

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care (department) has
received your request dated 19 May 2023 seeking access to documents under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act). You have
requested access to the following documents:

 

1. Number or proportion of documents provided to your office from Pfizer
out of the approximate 400,000 pages in relation to data on their vaccine
efficacy and side effects.

2. System used to identify the CV 19 virus and detailed outcome.

3. Cost/benefit study on all restrictions directed to health care staff
including GP's regarding providing advice to the public about side effects
and efficacy of Pfizer's vaccines.

4. Directives to health care staff - specifically general practitioners -
in relation to restrictions on avoiding any advice to the public regarding
adverse vaccine effects and/or lack of vaccine efficacy including any
directive to avoid advice on refusal in relation to the Immunisation
Handbook.

5. Full list of detailed reasons for directives - number 4.

6. List of organisations funding ATAGI.

Section 15 of the FOI Act requires that a request for access to documents
must provide sufficient information as is reasonably necessary to enable a
responsible officer in the department to identify the document requested.

Where a request does not satisfy the validity requirements of the FOI Act,
the department must undertake a request consultation process with you.

 

Part 1

 

The number or proportion of documents you are seeking could only be
determined by reviewing a putative set of 400,000 pages. As the whole set
of documents and the subset are not clearly defined, it would not be
reasonably possible for the department to identify a figure for the
proportion of documents that you are seeking. Moreover, even if the set
and subset could be clearly determined, were the department to attempt to
find the figure for the proportion of documents you are seeking, it would
be necessary to examine each of the 400,000 pages individually; estimating
1 minute a page, it would take 400,000 minutes, or 6,667 staff hours, to
complete a review of the documents. I therefore consider that a practical
refusal reason would likely exist, pursuant to section 24AA of the FOI
Act, as processing your request in its current form would constitute an
unreasonable diversion of the department’s resources from its other
operations.

 

Part 2

 

Would you please specify the “system” and “outcome” you are referring to,
for example, a pathological or administrative process, or something else?

 

Should you be referring to the scientific basis for identifying COVID-19,
the following information may assist you.

 

Information about COVID-19

 

SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is real. Multiple scientific
studies across the world demonstrate that highly reputable laboratory
medicine experts have isolated and sequenced the virus that causes
COVID-19, demonstrating that the virus exists, that it exists in variant
forms, that it is different from the influenza virus, and that it causes a
disease that has resulted in over 6.2 million deaths worldwide. While the
department is not the custodian of the scientific studies establishing the
existence of SARS-CoV-2 and the effectiveness of vaccines, this research
has informed the Australian Government’s response to the pandemic. You can
find those scientific

studies in the public domain.

 

The department is a government agency and does not conduct scientific
studies or laboratory testing for the SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory.
Diagnostic assays using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) are conducted by testing laboratories throughout Australia. For
more information, please see the Public Health Laboratory Network guidance
on laboratory testing for SARS-CoV-2, which is

available online:
[1]https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publ...

on-laboratory-testing-for-sars-cov-2-the-virus-that-causes-covid-19

 

In Australia, scientists at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference
Laboratory at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity were
the first to isolate SARS-CoV-2 outside of China, winning the 2020 MJA/MDA
National Prize for Excellence in Medical Research. This critical
information was immediately shared with local and overseas reference
laboratories and major North American and European virus culture
collections. These peer-reviewed, evidence-based publications provide
scientific evidence for the existence of this deadly virus. More
information can be found here:
[2]https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/212/...

 

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, change over time as part of their
natural evolution. A change may or may not give the virus a biological
advantage. Existing and emerging variants are constantly monitored using
genomic surveillance to detect those that pose or may pose an increased
risk to human health.

 

Parts 4 and 5

 

Management of hospitals and health care practitioners is a responsibility
of state and territory governments and any such directives would likely be
held by state or territory authorities.

 

The ‘Federal’ or ‘Commonwealth’ Government is separate to governments for
each of the states and territories, and each government is comprises
separate departments and agencies. Each department or agency creates,
receives and stores different documents relevant to their functions. This
department does not have access to all documents created, received, or
stored by other all government entities. A request for access to documents
under the FOI Act is limited to ‘a document of an agency’, which, for the
purposes of section 4 of the FOI Act, is a document in the possession of
this department.

 

State or territory records may be sought through the legislative processes
of each relevant state or territory. Details of these processes can
generally be found on the relevant state or territory health website. Find
out more about accessing information held by state and territory health
authorities:

o [3]ACT Health - Freedom of Information
o [4]New South Wales Health – Access to health and medical records
o [5]Northern Territory Health - Freedom of information
o [6]Queensland Health - Accessing information
o [7]South Australia Health - Freedom of information
o [8]Tasmanian Government Department of Health - Accessing Personal
Information
o [9]Victoria Department of Health - Freedom of Information
o [10]Western Australia Department of Health - Information Access, Use
and Disclosure Policy

 

Part 6

 

Would you please specify a date range.

 

In addition, the following publicly available information may assist you.

 

As per [11]Policies and procedures for the administration and governance
of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, the majority
of ATAGI’s funding comes from the Australian Government Department of
Health – these funds are used to fund activities related to the Australian
Immunisation Handbook and the development of policy advice. In addition,
the Australian Government funds NCIRS to provide technical support to
ATAGI. Some funding is provided by pharmaceutical companies on a cost
recovery basis for the provision of advice to support submissions to the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, consistent with the Australian
Government Cost Recovery Framework.

 

Consultation

You have not provided sufficient information for a responsible officer in
the department to identify the documents you are seeking access to and as
such, your request is not currently a valid FOI request.

The department is providing you with a reasonable opportunity to take
steps to provide sufficient information that would enable the department
to identify the documents you are seeking access to, and to submit a
request that is valid for the purposes of section 15 of the FOI Act.

Revising your request

You may wish to consider revising the scope of your request to identify
the specific documents you are looking for. Please note that the FOI Act
does not provide a mechanism for questions to be raised and answers
provided, and it does not require the department to create a response to
such questions, except in very limited circumstances. For example, you may
wish to:

o Withdraw parts of your request
o Specify a date range

Timeframes

As this is not currently a valid request, the statutory processing
timeframes have not commenced.

The consultation period during which you may revise the scope of your
request is 14 days from the date of this email. If the department does not
hear from you before the end of the 14-day consultation period, your
request will be regarded as an invalid request and no further action will
be taken on it by the department.

 

If you require assistance to modify your request to ensure that is a valid
request, you may contact the FOI team by email at [12][Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) request email]

 

Kind regards,

 

Tegan

FOI Officer – Freedom of Information Section

Legal Advice and Legislation

Legal and Assurance Division | Corporate Operations Group

Australian Government, Department of Health and Aged Care

T: 02 6289 1666 | E: [13][email address]

PO Box 9848, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

The Department of Health and Aged Care acknowledges the traditional owners
of country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land,
sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to
elders both past and present

 

 

show quoted sections