253. Regarding Freedom of Information 3586 on reported deaths why is so much data redacted? 254. Regarding Freedom of Information 3586 on reported deaths why is there almost another 150 deaths on the file that isn’t listed as a reported death?

Question Number: 154
PDR Number: SQ22-000188
Date Submitted: 24/02/2022
Department or Body: Department of Health

Question 253

Documents published under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) may have redactions applied for a number of reasons. They may, for example, contain information that is not relevant to the FOI request, or information which is exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act. In this case, the document has been redacted to remove identifying information about cases, including sensitive health information about deceased persons, and information not requested by the applicant. The black squares are redactions to certain information in some of the columns of this document.

The information that was the subject of the FOI request can still be accessed; that is, “The age of deceased for all reported adverse events resulting in death for events reported against any of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved COVID-19 vaccines”. This information is contained in the list of numbers between the redacted columns.

Question 254

The document released for FOI request 3586 includes a larger number of cases than listed in the TGA’s COVID-19 weekly safety report because it includes duplicate reports (that is, more than one report for the same individual). Duplicate reports are excluded from the weekly safety report and the Database of Adverse Event Notifications. Information about this issue is included at the top of the document on the TGA disclosure log.